20 Simple Questions
by TheEvilPinkCupcake
Summary: What's your favorite hair color? What's your greatest fear? What's your favorite number? These may seem like simple questions, but simple questions don't always have simple answers. The Marauders begin posting polls on the notice board, and what starts off as an unimportant game for entertainment starts to bring two people closer together. Guess who?
1. Introduction

**A/N**

**It's a new story! Yay! I know I'm still in the middle of another one, but I just had this idea and I just had to write it down, so why not start another one? :) It's A JamesxLily story (DUH :D) Hope you like it! And read the A/N at the end, please, it's important!**

"Lily, Lily, Lily, Lily! Oh, Lils!" Marlene yelled, beaming as she ran as fast as she could towards her redheaded friend. School just began a day ago, and Marlene had already regained her old bubbly and overexcited personality.

"Whoa there, calm there, Mar-Mar!" Lily giggled. "What's happened? Did Sirius finally ask you out?"

Marlene McKinnon blushed a deep crimson and looked away, "No, but have you seen the notice board?"

"Er…No, why?"

"The Marauders are planning this poll thing! Come and see!" Marlene squealed and tried to drag Lily to the board where a bunch of students were currently crowding around, seeming excited at something.

Personally, Lily didn't see anything so exciting about a poll, but she knew that Marlene had fancied Sirius for the longest time and, well, Sirius was a Marauder, so Lily strongly suspected that that was why Marlene was so excited.

Lily finally got to the notice board, but she couldn't see anything because of all the other students, so she had to wait a while longer and listen to Marlene fantasize about her lifelong crush.

After a while, the crowd finally cleared and Lily could see Marlene happily pointing to a piece of paper pinned on the right side of the board. Lily noticed it even before Marlene had showed her; it was impossible not to, for the notice clearly stood out from the others. It was charmed so a colorful frame of sparkling lights surrounded the parchment, and the paper was covered with light yellow and pink polka dots. The bolded words seemed to pop from the parchment and Lily even took a minute to admire the Marauder's handiwork.

Lily sighed and began to read.

"_Welcome, fellow students! I'm sure you've all noticed this wonderful object! Thank you for noticing this new notice. Your noticing will be noted. Anyways, we, the Marauders have had an idea! Every once in a while, we will be posting a multiple-choice question on this notice board! :D We predict that there will be 20 questions in all, but the 10th and the 20th ones are special. (Don't ask us how-we aren't going to tell you) To choose, just tap the square next to your pick and say _Deoptus_. And only Ravenclaws, Gryffindors, and Hufflepuffs can see the notices/polls and vote because we don't live slimy snakes. (Like Snivellus, but don't tell him I said that) And don't bother telling on us because we've charmed this paper so it's invisible to the professors too. You'll have no proof because they can't see it. (I'm talking to you, Evans)_

_Sincerely,_

_The Marauders (James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter)"_

"Isn't it so original?" Marlene smiled. "I can't wait for the first question to come out! I wonder what questions they thought of? I wonder why they thought of this and why they're doing it? Do you know why?"

Lily rolled her green eyes and then flashed them dangerously at the colorful parchment. "They can't do this!"

Marlene face-palmed and didn't seem surprised-she was used to this behavior. "Aww, come on, Lily! Don't be such a killjoy! It's just for fun, and besides, it's not harming anyone. Just go with it. Please?" She made a puppy face.

Lily sighed deeply. "Oh, fine, Mar-mar. But if they do anything, I'm telling McGonagall."

Marlene snorted, "Geez, Lily. You're so predictable. They know you so well, see? 'Don't bother telling on us.' and the 'I'm talking to you, Evans.'. They knew that you would react this way and they were ready. It won't work."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "Whatever. Let's go. I hate James Potter and his gang."

...

Later, Lily cornered the Marauders after Transfiguration. "I saw the notice you put up." She began casually.

"Oh yeah, what about it, Lily-flower?" James ran a hand through his hair.

"Don't call me that." Lily snapped. "And I know I can't do anything about it, because I can't stop you. But I _am_ a prefect. So no funny business, alright?" She put her hands on her hips.

"Evans, we have different meanings of the phrase '_funny business_'." James laughed.

"Whatever. I don't care. Just don't start messing around."

"And what will you do if we DO start playing around?" Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"I'll go to McGonagall." Lily sniffed angrily.

"Lily, Lily, Lily. Didn't you read about what we did to the paper?" James chuckled.

"UGH! Just NO FUNNY BUSINESS! DON'T DO ANYTHING." Lily threw her hands in the air and stalked off, annoyed.

And even though she knew that this poll was just for fun, Lily couldn't shake the feeling that it was going to become much, much, more.

**A/N THIS IS IMPORTANT!**

**Well, how was it? I know nothing big actually happened in this chapter, but it's just the beginning. I think there will be about 20 to 25 chapters. One for each question and there might be some fillers and a prologue/epilogue. :) This is technically the prologue! Review! I need it :D Oh, I also need you to tell (in a review,etc) what Lily's favorite hair color should be. It's between red and black. Red, because her own hair is red, or black, because James' is black, and she likes James even if she doesn't know it. HELP MEEE! :D Please, again. :) Thx.**


	2. The First Question

"Hey, Alice! Wait up!" Lily called to her other best friend. She ran and caught up to the Fortescue. "I heard about you and Frank," Lily whispered, smirking.

A light blush rose to Alice's cheeks and she laughed dreamily. Shaking herself out of her reverie, she asked Lily, "Have you seen the notice board? The Marauders just posted something."

"The introduction to the poll?" Lily asked. _Seriously? Why is everyone talking about that? It's just a survey thing, _She thought. But she was being hypocritical. Even though she would never admit it out loud, Lily had also been thinking about the polls a lot. She couldn't help windering what the Marauders wanted to ask Hogwarts and the reason for it. No matter what she did, the upcoming questions stayed firmly planted in her mind.

"Nope, they posted another one. The first question!" Alice seemed excited.

"Oh, what's it about?" Lily tried to act uninterested, but her mind was secretly begging Alice to tell her.

Alice shook her head, grinning from ear to ear. "Not telling." She sang. "If you want to know, then you have to go and check the notice board yourself. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go see Frank." Alice blushed, then skipped off happy, leaving Lily half annoyed and half amused.

The redhead sighed and walked towards the board, spotting a piece of parchment that looked extremely similar to the one before it. Lily leaned forward and read, "Here is the first question! Now, you may think that this question is stupid, but we have a reason for asking it! So here it is: What is your favorite hair color?" Lily paused.

That was definitely not what she'd expected. She'd thought it would be something funnier, possibly like 'What magical animal do you think we should set on Professor McGonagall?' Or something like that. Something more creative. This was neither creative nor funny. It was boring. Dull. Common. And that was what surprised Lily so much, because she had expected something so different. But the Marauders obviously knew that some people would react like this and think that it was stupid. That's why they added that note about having a reason for asking this, and Lily felt that they were talking to her. She was too predictable.

Shrugging, Lily pointed her wand to the squared marked 'red', and prepared to utter the spell. She paused. Was red really her favorite hair color? She never really gave it much thought. Lily stood there absent-mindedly twirling a strand of her ginger hair around her finger.

Why was this so hard? It was just a simple question. Lily bit her lip and her eyes scanned the students of the common room, observing their hair. None of the colors stood out to her, until Lily caught sight of a boy standing not too far from her. His hair was jet black. It was a pretty common color, but there was something unique about it. Lily just couldn't put her finger on it.

Mentally shrugging, Lily turned back to the notice, and without giving it a second thought, she muttered _Deoptus_, her wand pointing to the square marked 'Black Hair'. Lily turned and began walking to the girl's dormitory stairs. On her way, she caught sight of the raven-haired boy's face.

It was James Potter. Bloody hell, she was just admiring James Potter's hair.

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"Marley!" Lily called to her friend, who, like always, was still in a deep sleep, snoring under the covers. Lily sighed, then tiptoes to the side of Marlene's bed.

"See, Sirius, shhh, Marlene's still sleeping!" Lily whispered to no one.

"No!" Marlene shouted, bolting out of her bed. "I'm not presentable!" She stopped yelling quite abruptly at the sight of Lily cackling madly at the foot of her bed and no Sirius in sight. But the reason she stopped wasn't because of Sirius's absence or Lily's laughter.

"Lily-your hair!" Marlene yelped. "What happened?"

"What? What happened to my hair?" Lily, confused, snatched a clump of her now jet-black hair, gasped, and ran screaming to the bathroom mirror. There was another scream and Lily emerged, muttering furiously.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh-OH MY GOSH!" Lily pointed a finger at Marlene. "Your hair-it's white!"

The next few minutes were utter chaos.

When they finally calmed down, Lily asked "Do you think this has anything to do with the poll?"

A white-haired Alice clapped a hand to her forehead. "Of course! I chose white, so my hair is white, so the color you chose is the one your hair becomes!"

Lily wrinkled her nose. "Why'd you both pick white?"

Alice blushed. "Frank knew something was going to happen. He dared me to. Um..What about you, Marlene?"

Marlene hissed angrily, "At first I chose brown, then these words popped out. 'YOU CAN'T CHOOSE YOUR OWN', it said. Then I chose black and then 'TOO CLOSE! TEEHEE!'" Marlene scowled. "I was so frustrated I just chose white."

Alice hooted with laughter, "What about YOU, Lils? Black's your favorite hair color, hmm?"

Marlene giggled. "I wonder why!" She sang.

Lily scowled, realizing what they were implying. "Not because of THAT! No way!"

They chortled, but then because solemn. "What now? I look like a grandma!" Marlene whined.

"Well, there's nothing we can do…"

Minutes later, The girls had stumbled into the Great Hall, just to see that everyone's hair color had changed drastically. The Slytherins weren't able to vote on their hair color, so they all had hot pink, bright bubble gum-colored hair.

Alice nudged Lily and pointed to someone in the Gryffindor table. James' hair was ginger, the color that Lily's used to be. No one needed to ask why he chose Lily's hair-they all already knew. But the most surprising of all was the teacher's hair.

They were very colorful. Dumbledore looked the oddest of all. His beard was highlighted with different colors of the rainbow but he didn't look angry. Instead, he looked calm, and even amused as he stroked his vivid and showy beard.

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It turned out that the hair color lasted for a whole week, and Lily still wasn't used to her black hair. People could tell that James was quite enjoying being a ginger-he even seemed quite down when the colors finally faded back to their natural color.

Lily had cornered the boys and given them detention, but she knew very well that that wouldn't have ANY impact at all on the troublemakers.

There had been so much trouble already and this was only the first question, and even though Lily would never admit it, she was quite looking forward to what other things the Marauders had cooked up.

...

**A/N**

**Yay, the second chapter :) I know I had that poll thing, but then I changed my mind so sorry if you took it. LOL. Like I said on my other story, I'm going on vacation. I just wanted to get this chapter up because I know some of you wanted it :] I'm so nice. You know what I deserve? A review. (hint hint) Review! :)**

**I changed Alice's last name to Fortescue, because JHeap97 said that her last name couldn't be Prewett. Sorry if in future chapters it still says Prewett. Tell me if it does!**


	3. The Second Question

**A/N **

**I'm finally back after such a long time! :O You must hate me...Oh wellz. Here's Chapter 3!**

**And here's a disclaimer. Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JK Rowling. Not me :(**

"Goblins never had a war against mice! I don't know where you got that from." Lily sniffed like she usually did when she spotted an incorrect fact on homework. She jumped about a mile in the air when Marlene slammed her quill down on the table and jumped up, looking frustrated and annoyed.

"Can we take a break? Oh, please, please, please?" Marlene gave her a puppy face, knowing how hard it was to pull Lily away from her work.

Lily frowned disapprovingly. "We can't do that!" Lily gaped as if the idea of leaving her homework unfinished was horrifying. "This is due in two days, you know; you really shouldn't be running off to-"

"Aww, come on, Lily; where's you sense of humor?" Marlene pleaded. "I heard the Marauders posted a new question! Oh, please please please?"

Lily hesitated. A new question by the Marauders sounded strangely appealing. "No. Like I said, this homework is very important, and our exams-"

Marlene sighed and interrupted Lily's rant. "Bye-bye. You coming Alice? Mary?" They both nodded eagerly and ran up to join Marlene.

Lily began scolding them. "Guys! Homework is very important; much more important than some stupid question Potter and his gang put up!"

The redhead's friends shared a look and Mary let out a giggle. "You singled out Potter!" She chortled. "One last time, Lily. You coming or not?"

Lily scowled. "No. I, unlike you, am going to sit back down in this library, and continue working on my History of Magic essay, which, by the way, is very important. I, unlike you, am going to work diligently and finish ALL of my homework before going to play. I, unlike you, am going to be a good student and keep on studying!"

There was a moment of silence, which Alice broke. "You know, that would have been a good speech if you hadn't singled out Potter a moment earlier."

Lily's friends lapsed back into giggles, and Lily plopped back down on her chair, starting on her essay. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as her Alice, Marlene, and Mary left the library in high spirits. Her friends were so infuriating sometimes...

"Helloooo!" A familiar voice called. It seemed like Lily's friends had come back. Marlene's face was oddly flushed, and it was beet red, and Mary was also slightly blushing, but Alice looked as normal as ever except for the fact that she looked as if she was going to burst out into laughter the next second. And sure enough, she did.

Lily was very surprised. First, she whispered, "Shhh! Quiet in the library! You'll get us kicked out!" But then, her curiosity seemed to get the best of her and she asked anxiously, "What's so funny? What happened?"

As Marlene was too flushed to answer, and Mary seemed to be temporarily frozen with a light pink tinting her cheeks, once again, it was Alice who answered. "See, we were just-"

Alice Prewett was interrupted by Madam Pince, who came pelting out of nowhere, brandishing a feather duster at them. Lily jumped aside as they were showered in dust.

"Out! Out!" The crazy librarian yelled. "No talking loudly in the library! No crazy giggling! And absolutely no girl gossiping! You can do that outside! Out!"

Panting, the girls skidded to a stop far from the library.

"She's bonkers!" Lily said. Then she added, "Well, what were you saying?" "Oh!" Alice smiled widely as the blushes rose once more to her friends' cheeks. "Yes, that. So, we just finished answering the Marauders' new question and-"

"What was it? The question, I mean."

Alice gave one of those sly grins that made Lily feel that her friend knew something she didn't. She looked to Mary and Marlene for help, but Mary was simply biting her lip, looking nervous. She didn't look like she was following the conversation at all. Marlene was staring up at the ceiling, bright pink patches still visible on her face. What could possibly have happened that would make her friends act this way?

Lily was jolted from her thoughts by Alice answering. "Suddenly so interested, Lilykins? Well you'll have to find out yourself!" She said haughtily.

Lily glowered at her. "Marlene did that to me last time. Are you guys going to tell me I have to find out myself for every single question?"

"Possibly. But that's not the point. See, we just finished answering the first question-Don't interrupt now, Lils." Alice smirked. "And we turned around…DUNDUNDUN." She made a dramatic sweeping motion with her arms while Lily rolled her eyes. "And Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew were sitting on the couch!"

"So?"

"Now, don't interrupt, Lily dear. It's rude and I'm in the middle of an exciting story here!"

Lily raised her eyebrows. Her friends were really very…odd.

Alice continued. "And Remus waves, looking right at Mary, and Mary blushes, and Remus blushes, and CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE?"

"Er…Remus and Mary are both blushing?"

"EXACTLY! And then…Wait. Oh, wait."

"Huh?"

Alice shook her head. "I can't tell you without revealing the question. Too bad! You'll have to go and see the question!"

Lily harrumphed and began walking away. "I'll be right back!"

As she fast-walked towards the common room, she really began wondering what the stupid Marauders really could have said that made her friends blush so much and even be temporarily frozen in shock…

When she finally got through the portrait hole, Lily saw that Potter and his friends were still lounging on the Gryffindor couch, so instead of running excitedly to the notice board like she had intended, she made a pokerface and walked slowly to the board as if she had nothing better to do.

"_Welcome back! We believe your hair color has now returned to normal. (Shame, James looked quite funny as a redhead.) First of all, we changed our minds. It won't be multiple choice anymore! Why? Because we feel like it of course. So don't question us! (AHEM. You. Yes, you. No, not you! YOU!).The spell is Scriptus, and your wand will become a quill-ish thing. Anyways, here's the second question:_

_ What is the color of your underwear right now?"_

Lily's mouth opened. That was so inappropriate! And she didn't know her own underwear color, which meant that she'd have to peek and James Potter was sitting right there. He might see, and she would never hear the end of it. UGH. She tried to walk away; maybe she could go up to the girls' dorm and check, then come back down to answer. But she found that her feet wouldn't move. She was stuck. She tried a few spells to get herself unstuck, but not one of them worked.

"Once you've read the question, you can't move until you've answered it." Someone said, and Lily groaned.

"What do you want, Potter?" Lily said in the hardest voice she could muster.

"Just to tell you you won't be able to move until you've answered. You gotta admit, it's a pretty good idea."

"I guess. Now let me outta-"

James' face brightened. "Lily Evans thinks that I, JAMES POTTER, had a good idea!" He smiled widely and began dancing around.

Lily, who still couldn't move her feet, just scowled. "I said that the idea was good, not that YOU had the good idea!"

"Well I was the one who thought of it!"

Lily changed direction top speed. "I meant that the charm work was good!"

James' smile widened. "I was the one who did the charm work too!"

Frowning, she said. "Whatever!" And she turned back to answer. Aware that James was watching her closely, she looked down and peeped. Purple.

"_Scriptus_." She said clearly.

As she turned to leave, she saw that James Potter was back to talking with his friends. Lily felt a smile creep up on her face and she told herself that maybe she was lucky and Potter didn't see her peeking at her own underwear.

"Nice purple panties, Evans!" a voice called. Potter. Of course.

Lily whirled around and glared, but he had already turned back. As he bent down to tie his shoelaces, The back of his boxers became visible and Lily found herself staring.

Suddenly realizing what she was doing, she gave an audible gasp, and ran out the portrait hole, ignoring all the weird looks she got.

Lily mentally slapped herself. What the heck was she thinking just now? She found Marlene, Alice, and Mary in the same corridor. Marlene and Mary seemed to have finally snapped out of their reveries.

"Well?" Alice demanded. "Did you answer?"

Lily nodded. "But tell me the story now!"

"Alright then. Where was I? Oh! So we just finished answering and the Marauders were there, yada yada yada. And after Remus and Mary's _exchange_," Alice giggled. "Sirius said 'Hi' to Marley, and she said 'Hi' back, and he asked her if she wanted to go to Hogsmeade with him!"

"Yeah, so?" Lily shrugged. Unlike other girls, she didn't bother about all that lovey dove girl business. She didn't wear makeup and didn't spend hours every morning deciding on what to wear, but she managed to look good all the same-as she was constantly reminded by Potter.

"So? Whaddya mean, SO?" Alice then went on a long rant, explaining how this was super duper important, how it was the peak of Marlene's love life, how they have to begin preparing for the wedding, and so on...

Lily had tuned her out. Suddenly, a picture of James Potter and his blue and black checkered boxers flashed through her mind. Why did she keep thinking about it? Lily curled her hand into a fist and bonked herself on the head a few times.

"Er…Lily?" Marlene's voice said. "Um..why did you just er…punch your own head?"

Lily was definitely NOT telling them that she just had a mental image of Potter in his boxers.

"I forgot that I never finished my Charms essay! It's due soon!" Lily wailed. She didn't really need to pretend since she really had just remembered that her homework was still unfinished.

Lily ran away from Marlene, Alice, and Mary, who were all wearing looks of confusion.

This question thing was really addling her brain...

**A/N**

**Wellllll? Was it horrible? Good? Bad? Terrible? Awesome? Okay? Horrifying? Lovely? Beautiful? Disgusting? Tell me in a review! :) Thanks. I hope you don't hate me. :O**

**And THANK YOU to _a fucking veela_ for giving me this idea! :) You're awesome.**

**Bye! **

**-TheEvilPinkCupcake**


	4. The Third Question

**A/N**

**I'm back! It's been like a week. Is that a long time? Ah well. **

**Disclaimer: Everything is JK Rowling's. And I'm not her. So too bad for me.**

**Onwards!**

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After that question about the underwear color, everybody expected something to happen the next day. But nothing happened. That day was peaceful, and so was the next…and the next…and the next…and the next. It was five days later when something actually happened. During just a normal breakfast, there was a loud BOOM. People froze. Most of the students had forgotten about the question, some thought that all it was supposed to do was make some people embarrassed and make the situation awkward.

Well, that _was_ the intention, but there was now a little more to it than they thought. After that deafening bang, puffs of smoke began to cloud the Great Hall. It felt humid, like real fog, but nobody knew what was going on. After a few seconds, everyone felt something whoosh over them. They all began to feel oddly uncomfortable. Not the type of uncomfortable where you're caught in an unpleasant situation, but the type of uncomfortable you feel if you feel like your pants were about to fall down or your shirt was too tight, preventing you from breathing properly. Most people looked down, hoping to see the cause of this sudden awkwardness.

Lily, being the responsible prefect she was, waited patiently for the fog to clear. Other people were not so calm. Lily heard several earsplitting and high-pitched girly screams, many people yelling, and Lily was quite sure Peter Pettigrew had burst into tears even though he was part of this unexpected prank.

When the fog finally disappeared gradually, Lily looked around at everybody, confused. They looked the same, but most of them had a weird expression on their face, and Lily wondered if they were also experiencing the same odd uncomfortable feeling she was.

Lily was a bit confused. Was the fog the prank? Or was it a distraction? Suddenly remembering where the odd feeling was, she looked down and gasped. Of course. The prank had to do with underwear. That was why it felt so weird. Because her undies had went from being inside her pants to outside. And they were purple, where Lily distinctly remembered putting on red ones this morning after her shower. She didn't know why she remembered, but she did.

Now, everyone's underwear were on the outside, and they had probably changed into the color they had put for the question. The only people who still looked normal were James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. _Of course, _Lily thought disdainfully. _They wouldn't want to embarrass themselves. _While everyone tried to hide their underwear from public view, the Marauders stood up on the benches proudly and admired their work. They smirked at their fellow classmates glaring at them from their seats, taunted, teased, and cackled madly at the Slytherins in their hot pink lacy panties, and laughed themselves silly when their eyes landed on Dumbledore, who was sporting a rainbow and sparkly brief.

Lily looked over to the Slytherins' table and realized that all boys' boxers had been turned into ladies panties too, and she had to suppress a loud laugh. Her friends looked half horrified and half amused.

Lily came out of her reverie, suddenly remembering what she was wearing. Furious but unable to act because of her clothing and the fact that the professors were watching, Lily stabbed her steak and kidney pie moodily, reminding herself to yell at the Marauders and maybe give them a slap or two.

And she did. "Sirius! Remus! Peter! Potter!" Lily screamed at him the moment they were in the common room.

"Hey! How come you call everyone except me by their first name!" James cried indignantly.

"Because you're the only one that I don't like. What the hell was that all about!"

"Huh?" They all said together. What a smart response.

"That-That prank thing back in the Great Hall! That was disgusting and embarrassing! I have half a mind to give you a week of detention!"

"Only half? Well, that's a first!" Potter exclaimed haughtily.

"Whatever!" Lily stalked away because one, she couldn't think of a comeback, and two, the weird fluttering butterflies in her stomach were becoming increasingly uncomfortable…

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It was two weeks after the second question had been posted and Lily was very glad her sudden infatuation with James Potter's boxers had ended and gone. She hadn't been able to sleep for many nights because that image kept flashing through her mind. She blamed the Marauders. If they hadn't started all this question nonsense, she wouldn't be so sleep-deprived. It was weird how she always felt an odd urge to check the board. She thought it was curiosity, but she knew perfectly well that it was something more, though she would never admit it.

She often felt a compulsion to laugh at the Marauder's antics, but she maintained a cold indifference. She had a reputation to upkeep. It was widely known that Lily Evans hated James Potter-a feat no girl had managed yet at Hogwarts. Lily felt like she had to keep pretending to despise them. Keyword: keep. Recently, the hatred had disappeared, only to be replaced by a warm, fuzzy feeling whenever Potter was around. Lily's friends, always quick on the uptake, had noticed at once that the looks of disgust and crinkling of her nose were gone, and in its place there was nervous fidgeting and many imperceptible blushes.

She had forgotten all about the questions after she received an A on a Transfiguration essay.

"An A!" Lily had wailed. She had never gotten below and E in any subject before. Even McGonagall shot her a disappointed look even though 'Acceptable' was still a pass grade. Her friends had reminded her three times already, that the third question had just been posted. But Lily pushed it out of her mind again and again. She blamed the Marauders for distracting her and getting her a bad grade.

There was this little voice in the back of her mind that kept saying. _Go see the question, Lily! You can't pretend you hate the Marauders forever! Go check it! You know you want to! _This was very annoying, Lily told herself, and it also caused her to get another Acceptable, this time on a Charms essay. Lily was nearly reduced to tears. Charms was her best subject, and to her, an Acceptable was not acceptable. Yes, she took school work extremely seriously.

And so, just to get that distracting and taunting voice in her mind to shut up, she went to check the question. That was the only reason. (Well, that was what she told herself.)

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"_Hi again! And lovely undies you had there, by the way. :)_" Lily scowled. "_Now, you're here for the third question, correct? Of course I am. But first, we need to announce something. (Lils, you already know :) ) Just so people who didn't want to answer the question don't started bellowing and screaming (AHEM.), we thought she just inform you all that once you've read the question you can't move until you answer. Brilliant, eh? And so, please don't start crying, sobbing, yelling, screaming, shouting, wriggling, cursing, punching, weeping, begging, or swearing when you realize your feet are stuck to the ground. And having an 'accident' is prohibited. Thank you for your consideration. We apologize for the inconvenience. NOW! On to the question!_

_Which nickname do you like best?_

_[] Prongs_

_[] Padfoot_

_[] Moony_

_[] Wormtail_

_Well? Choose choose choose!_"

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Lily debated on this inwardly. Padfoot was a mouthful, and if she was to shorten it to 'Pads'…Well, that sounded like…the lady products. And Wormtail sounded plain disgusting. So it was between Moony and Prongs. Lily, who even back home, had read the dictionary, already anxious to learn new words, and she tried to remember the definition of 'moony'. Pertaining to the moon. (Well, duh!). Dreamy, listless, or silly-just about the opposite of what Lily was. Prongs meant either the pointy part of a fork or an antler, or a branch of a stream. Well, that was better than being dreamy and silly, Lily thought. She would hate to be like that loony Xenophilius Lovegood. No offense.

So her answer was Prongs. What else could it be? It was the only logical one. (To her, at least) Padfoot, was too long, and if shortened, it'd become kinda…gross. Wormtail was already disgusting. The definition of Moony didn't make sense. Prongs was the only one left.

"_Deoptus_." Lily said, her wand pointing to her answer. She wondered what her other friends chose, and she imagined that when she asked them why they chose that, they'd probably say something along the lines of 'It sounded cool'. Lily would be the only one who began to explain that her answer was based on her own opinion and logic. Lily let out a giggle.

There were four nicknames, probably one for each of the Marauders. Lily distinctively remember most of the names being said by a member of the Marauders, but she wasn't quite sure who it was directed towards. Whenever she overheard a conversation between them, a nickname was used, but at other times where there were more people, they called each other by their normal names. It was as if it was a private joke between them that they didn't want anyone else to know.

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"Where were you, Lily? We were looking for you everywhere!" Alice exclaimed during dinner in the Great Hall.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Apparently you didn't look hard enough because I was only in the common room. Where did you look then?"

Marlene faltered. "Er…we looked in the library."

"And?"

"The library…and…The library." She finished awkwardly.

"Honestly, you think I spend all my free time in the library?"

"Yes." All of her friends said together.

Lily huffed. "Well, I checked the question thingamajig."

They looked up eagerly. "And? What'd you choose?" Mary asked.

"Not telling, since you wouldn't tell me either!" Lily mocked.

"Who said we wouldn't tell you?" Marlene retorted.

"…Alright then. What'd you put?" Lily said testily.

Marlene turned pink. "Mmmm…Not…telling."

Lily let out a 'Ha!' and they all burst into laughter. It was against all her beliefs, but Lily found herself wondering what the Marauders had in store. She just hoped it wouldn't be too embarrassing. Or frightening. Or humiliating…

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But to her, the prank afterwards was all three.

Lily walked with her usual three friends and seated themselves at the Gryffindor table. Helping herself to some treacle tarts, she and her friends began making small talk. Lily drank from her goblet and suddenly her head felt like it was about to crack open.

She moaned, putting her head in her hands.

"What's wrong Lily?"

"I think I have a migraine…my head hurts like hell!"

"Wow. It must be really bad." Alice smirked and Lily's head was pounding so much she didn't even have the energy to respond.

"Ouch!" Marlene's voice exclaimed. And soon, people all over the Great Hall were groaning and complaining about some part of their body hurting terribly.

Marlene, who was holding her feet with one hand and biting the other hand, was muttering curses out of the corner of her mouth. Mary was scowling and clutching the table so hard her knuckles were turning white.

After about ten more minutes of pandemonium, the pain subsided. Lily breathed a sigh of relief. But it didn't last for long. Suddenly there was a loud noise that sounded oddly like 'Blerp' and Lily's head suddenly became so heavy it felt like her neck would break.

"L-Lily? Take a look." Alice's voice trembled and she passed Lily a compact mirror. Lily let out a earsplitting scream. Antlers! What had she done to deserve this?…Of course. The question. Oh, she was so going to kill the Marauders!

Lily was too engrossed in staring, horrified at her own reflection that she hadn't noticed what had happened to all the other students. Some had antlers just like Lily, and they all had trouble holding their head up because of the excess weight. Others had fur covering their arms and legs, and they all looked even more horrified than Lily had been. Marlene and many others had padded hands and feet. They were covered with shaggy black fur and they seemed to have been transformed into dog paws. And some, but not as much, had a long rat's tail poking out from their behind. The Slytherins, of course, had all four and Parkinson was shrieking her head off.

The weight of her head began to much and Lily had to rest her head on the table…

"Oi! How long is this going to last exactly?" Lily called, hands grabbing her antlers.

"We're not sure!" Sirius called back. "Maybe three or four…"

"Three or four what? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Hours?"

Sirius seemed to be thinking hard. "Maybe even five…"

Needless to say, she had not been able to extract an answer from Sirius, and her neck was becoming extremely sore. Classes had been halted until the spell or potion wore off, much to Lily's disappointment. She would have to work even harder to make up for lost time because holding her head up was very hard work.

Potter had later made a comment that Lily did not understand at all. He had said, "You chose Prongs! I knew you'd warm up to me some time Lilykins!" Since she didn't understand, she chose to not reply and she plastered a frown onto her face. She didn't know what to say and Lily Evans not knowing something was against the rules.

Some students had visited the hospital wing, hoping to be turned back to normal, but Madam Pomfrey had not been able to make the slightest improvement to them. Lily hadn't bothered, since she had been the victim of some pranks in the past and even though she would never admit it out loud, the Marauders were very good at spells and they were quite clever. Pity they don't use their brains for school. It would've saved Hogwarts a whole lot of problems. Lots.

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**A/N **

**Wow! This one was my longest one! :D**

**Well? How was it? I hope it wasn't too bad. I wasn't very sure how to end it, so I just left it like that. Review! It makes me super super super happy! I have 39 reviews for just 3 chapters! :) I love y'all! Thanks to everyone who's either read, alerted, favorited, reviewed, and suggested ideas! You're awesome. **

**Right. So if you think you have a good idea, private message me and maybe I can use it :) Try not to put it in a review because then other people can see, but if you can't or you're too lazy to, it's alright. As long as I get the idea! **

**Speaking of ideas, thank you to CoralFlower for this one! :) It was a wonderful idea, so thank you thank you thank you so much for suggesting it!**

**I already have an idea for the next one. I just need to write the chapter for it. (Hint-ish: It's from pyrodragon82) Yeah, most of you don't understand that 'hint' but I just want to let pyrodragon82 know that I'm using that person's idea next. **

**Also, a guest reviewer called pickles told me that prefects don't have the authority to give out detentions. I think they do, because in _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_, when Seamus and Harry had that argument, Ron had stepped in and word for word the book said: ****"Yeah? Well unfortunately for you, pal, I'm also a prefect!" said Ron, jabbing himself in the chest with a finger. "So unless you want detention, watch your mouth!" ****And a teacher wouldn't give detention over that argument so it had to be Ron. Just saying, though I'm not sure pickles will know about this since that person wasn't logged on.**

**And finally, I hope this chapter was satisfactory, and once again, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! :)**

**-TheEvilPinkCupcake**

**P.S. That was the longest author's note I've ever done in my fanfiction life. I don't know whether I should punch myself or applaud. Maybe I should go with both. Anyways. Bye!**


	5. The Fourth Question

**A/N**

**I'm finally back! :) **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**WARNING: FLAMES WILL BE LAUGHED AT AND USED TO MAKE MARSHMALLOWS FOR S'MORES.**

**I've always wanted to say that. :) Anyways. Onwards!**

Lily's antlers fell off after a week. A week! Her neck ached to no end and she even skipped Transfiguration so she could rest. Yeah, that's how bad it was. Lily Evans never skipped classes unless it was absolutely necessary. And in this case, it was. She had expected her antlers to disappear abruptly, or slowly crumble, piece by piece. She was immensely surprised when one day during History of Magic, there was a loud plop! And her antlers were on the floor, rocking back and forth. Lily looked to her friends and saw that the floor around Marlene and Mary were covered with fur, and they looked normal now.

Lily's head felt very light compared to what it had been before. Over the next few hours, Lily had seen some crazy fangirls put some fur in a plastic bag to keep so they could remember this and say they had 'a part of the Marauders'. Lily had even spotted a sixth year girl trying to take her unattached antlers upstairs unnoticed. It was impossible for people not to notice, however, because the girl had tried to hide the antlers in the front of her robes, and long story short, people wondered why the normally skinny girl suddenly had a bulging belly. Lily had silently laughed herself silly, though on the outside, she kept a cool exterior, because she was a prefect and she was supposed to be strict, yet kind.

But she was being a hypocrite. After the antler had fallen off, she had placed them in a box and mailed it home. Five owls had to carry it together because of the weight, and she had written her parents letter explaining that the antlers were some kind of memoir so she would remember what had happened during her years at Hogwarts.

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In the next week, Lily's favorite lesson had been Charms, since they'd been learning Patronuses. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't do it.

"Ugh! I just can't do it! _Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum!_" Only faint wisps of smoke spewed from the end of her wand. Soon, she had tried just about all of her happy memories, like the time she learned about magic, when she made her best friends, all her birthdays and the holidays, but nothing worked.

Then an image came, unbidden, into her mind. It was after that time in fifth year. Snape had just called her that filthy word: _Mudblood_. She had kept a cold, cruel indifference after that incident, but when she was alone, she remembered her old childhood best friend, and sometimes she couldn't help it and the tears began to fall. She cry silently, curled up on the floor, and that was how James Potter found her once. She had yelled at him, screamed at him, punched his stomach, but he refused to leave. Patiently, calmly, he had comforted her and made a few jokes, until all the tears subsided and she felt better. She never cried over Snape again after that.

She remembered the way he had hugged her, how it felt so different and how it made her feel so special. "_Expecto Patronum!_" She said, and shockingly, a bright silver doe shot out the tip of her wand. Lily watched it gallop around the classroom, interacting with other animals. Her eyes widened when her silver doe pranced to the middle of the room with a stag patronus. They seemed to exchange a silent greeting, then both of them began to leap through the air, twirling, as if they were dancing. Lily could help but notice how they seemed to perfect for each other. _Obviously_, she added in her mind, _they're a doe and a stag_._ Of course they belonged together_. Stupid Lily.

The stag and the doe had soon dissolved into mist, and class was dismissed. And then Lily slowly began to piece it together. Prongs was a Marauder nickname. After James had seen Lily's antlers, he had said _"You chose Prongs! I knew you'd warm up to me some time Lilykins!". _That meant that Prongs was James' nickname. Prongs meant stag. There was a stag patronus, and it must have belonged to James Potter. And Lily had thought that her doe and the stag had belonged together, so she had indirectly implied that…Bloody hell.

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It happened for the first time. Lily's friends were extremely surprised, and Lily enjoyed seeing the gobsmacked looks on their faces. That is, until they began teasing her about Potter. Again. So what if she had actually run out of Divination so she could check the Marauder's question? Divination wasn't important anyways. It was just a load of dragon dung.

Believe it or not, Lily was actually the very first person to see the question, which was really saying something, since she had to fight her way through the crowds of fangirls trying to get there first.

_"Hello. Greetings. Salutations. Hi. Howdy. :) Now, for the fourth question. You might think it's not original, but don't be fooled!…Actually, do be fooled. That way you'll be more surprised by the result!…We ruined that didn't we?…Just forget what we just said. Ooooh, you don't remember anything, do you? No you don't! So haha!…Okay, we'll stop now._

_What's your absolutely favorite animal?_

_Ta-ta for now."_

True, Lily was disappointed. But she wasn't fooled. She wasn't stupid, and her previous experiences taught her that the Marauders were able to change something tiny into something huge and unbelievable.

Her favorite animal was a doe, just like her patronus, luckily. She had once heard that a fourth year's favorite animal was a leopard (Even though she was nothing like one) and her patronus turned out to be a penguin. Poor girl. **(A/N: I think that it's possible for you patronus and your favorite animal to be different because what you like doesn't necessarily have to be what you're like. So just go with it.)**

Lily left wondering why they wanted to know peoples' favorite animals. The only way they could change the students into animals was by transfiguring them, but they would have to do it one by one, and there were too many people to be able to do it all at once. A potion that would turn people into animals hadn't been invented yet, so what were they going to do?

She got her answer a week later. Day after day had passed, but Lily had secretly been waiting for the prank that was sure to come. And sure enough, it did.

It was just like any other dinner. Lily was talking with her friends about homework, shopping, and others, just like any other day.

"Well, that was very satisfying." Dumbledore exclaimed happily. "I feel full to the brim, don't you? Well, now that that's over, off you trot!" His eyes twinkled mysteriously. They seemed to be looking directly at Lily and she felt that perhaps there was some hidden meaning to his words, though Lily had no idea…unless he heard about her doe, but why would be be bringing that up now?

There was no more time to dwell on it, because people had already begun to move towards the doors. That was when Lily felt another odd sensation, like last time, except this time it was in her feet. Lily heard a few mutters and gasps as some of the other students felt the same tingling feeling she had.

She stopped walking, and just about the whole crowd of students did too. So they were all standing there, a huge mass of people blocking the doorway. It seemed like the Marauders had struck.

Suddenly, there was a loud shriek, and Lily saw Narcissa Black standing not too far from her. It seemed like she was the first victim. Black was standing on two skunks, one for each foot. The skunks looked like they were lying on their stomachs, and Lily watched, half amused and half disgusted as the skunk's foul odor filled the air. People moved away and Lily saw clearly that Narcissa's nose was wrinkled and she looked absolutely horrified and disgusted.

Then Lily felt like she was growing…except she didn't feel any different; she didn't feel like she was being stretched. It felt like she was on one of those Muggle platforms, and the platform was rising. But it didn't feel at all like a flat platform for two reasons. One, it felt slightly curved, and two, it was furry.

Lily was standing on two deer. Doe, to be exact. Of course.

"Argh!" Lily yelled, and then she fell backwards. The Great Hall was filled with yells and students toppling off shoes that had been transfigured into their favorite animal.

Lily, who was ever so organized, was the first student who calmly made her way out the Great Hall in just socks, leaving her 'pets' behind. Eager to get away from the chaos, she didn't see where she was going, and as a result, she crashed headfirst into someone. Potter and his cronies. Just her luck. Come to think of it, they probably weren't in the Great Hall because they didn't want to be in the middle of all the pandemonium. They weren't wearing shoes either.

James had two stags around a leash, two dogs were being held by Sirius, and Peter was holding two small animals in his hands. Remus didn't have any animal with him, so Lily assumed that they were too small to be seen.

"Why do you have them with you?" Lily indicated the deer.

James looked amused. "You do too."

Lily whirled around, and sure enough, the same two does were there, looking at her with a slightly interested look on their faces.

"Wha-" Lily took a step back. They stepped forward. Lily stepped back. They stepped forward. They continued in this fashion until Lily finally asked. "Why are they following me?"

Sirius snorted with laughter. "All the animals are trained to follow around their 'owners'."

Argh, that meant that she'd have two does trailing after her wherever she went. And they did. Wherever she went, they went. It was the same with the other people's animals too. Classes hadn't been cancelled, though the extra animals were an interesting addition, especially during one class where Lily suddenly found her notes smeared with deer droppings. It was gross.

Also, since her current shoes had been turned into does, she was only in socks. She had made her way to her closet, the animals right behind her. Luckily, she had brought an extra pair. Imagine her surprise when she opened the door and the shoes were gone. There were two more does in their place. So then Lily had four of them following her everywhere. Oh, the joy. (Note the sarcasm.)

The animals actually changed Lily's Hogwarts life quite a bit. Sometimes they scared her, like the time she woke up peacefully and suddenly saw a doe face looming so close to her own that its nose was just about a millimeter away.

One thing that Lily noticed was how her does and Potter's stags got along so well. Even though they were trained to follow their 'owners, during classes they had together, their animals seemed to talk to each other and interact like a family. It was odd to say the least.

Lily still didn't know when she would get her shoes back, but she hoped it would be soon because some of the other girls' complaining was getting extremely irritating. ("I want my shoes back! They were very expensive, you know; my mother bought them for me!")

Lily couldn't wait for everything to go back to normal. Well, as normal as Hogwarts could ever be with the Marauders still there…

**A/N**

**Ok then. :) Sorry about that author's note I threw in, but not everyone reads the notes at the end and beginning, so I thought that if I put it in the middle then it'd be clearer, just to let you know. **

**Also, this is seventh year, but there aren't Head Dorms. I thought that the Heads had to share a dorm, but then in JKR's books it never mentioned it. Thank you to iheartweasleytwins for clearing that up for me!**

**I guess this one was pretty long, but I don't know if it was good...so review please and tell me if there are mistakes. :)**

**Finally, school's starting soon, so I probably won't be able to update fast, because of homework and everything.**

**I sometimes feel like I'm so young to be writing on this, since I've read people with author's notes that say things like 'I'm very busy with college/university..' That sort of thing. And I'm far from college. =.= Eh.**

**So review. :) I won't put that if you review I'll update faster because that won't be true. I've gotten 55 so far, and I can't thank you all enough!**

**-TheEvilPinkCupcake**


	6. The Fifth Question

**A/N**

**I'm finally back! It's been super super long! I know I say that every single time but now I actually mean it. School has been hectic recently, since we're just settling in and everything. Sorry...I tried to take a little few minutes break from homework to try and keep writing this, but my dad saw, and let's just say that if I'm on the computer when I'm not done with homework, then it counts as 'playing computer'. Even if I'm on Word Document or some other document. Urgh.**

**IMPORTANT: Help please! I really really really need ideas! You can include it in a review or PM me. I need a lot more, so if you have any, tell me, and I'll think about it. Thanks so much!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot/questions.**

**And here it is!**

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This time, the result of their question answers lasted even longer than normal, not that Lily minded. The more time passed, the more Lily cared about her four does. Instead of treating them like an irritating fly who just wouldn't go away (or an irritating Potter who just wouldn't go away), she thought of them as pets and she actually took care of them.

Though the whole of Hogwarts was shoeless now. If any shoes entered Hogwarts grounds, it would instantly turn into the animal of the owner. Lily had no idea how they did it. Hogwarts was huge and it was almost impossible for them to be able to charm the whole castle. All the students were now either barefoot or in socks, and all the girls avoided the outdoors because they didn't want to get dirty. Lily didn't mind.

There was also a quidditch match during that period between Hufflepuff and Slytherin. It was amusing how the players were playing barefoot or with just socks. There were less people watching now, because of the people didn't want to get dirty. Sissies.

The animals also brought a special spark to class and to Lily's life, but the biggest surprise came one day when she woke up. James' stags were in the girl's dormitory. How on earth did they get there? She thought the stairs would turn into a slide if any male attempted to get up them, but perhaps that spell only applied to human beings.

All of the deer were curled up on a little patch of grass Lily had made for them in the corner. But the biggest surprise was the two little fawns resting by their mothers stomach.

This didn't make any sense. Lily knew that at the most, it took a few months for a mother doe to give birth. It couldn't have happened overnight. Unless magical deer reproduced ten times faster than normal ones. Yes, that must be it. There was no other reason that Lily's does could have mated with James' stags in just one night…

Wait. Lily's doe and James' stag had a fawn. Together. Oh my gosh! Lily uttered a little scream actually fell off the bed in shock. Lying in a crumpled heap on the floor, covered by bed sheets, she groaned loudly. Why did this effect her so much anyways? That annoying voice in her head replied after cackling madly._ Because your doe and James' stag had a fawn! (_Not that she actually minded, but if you had asked her that, she'd lie without giving it a second thought.)

She was actually quite down when all the animals suddenly turned back into shoes two days later. But instead of just her usual two pairs of shoes there were two more pairs of baby sneakers. She decided to send them home too, as a memoir of her last year at the school. But other than that, there were no direct reminders of her pets, well, unless you count their droppings, but Lily didn't exactly want to send those home…

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With each passing day, Lily's obsession with the Marauders' next question grew, though, compared to the other fan girls, her excitement was only a smidgen. Days passed, followed by weeks, and Lily became steadily more and more disappointed when there was no news about the upcoming question. She would never ever admit it though, not even if you paid her a billion galleons, sixteen sickles, and twenty-eight knuts. Yep, she was _that_ stubborn.

Finally, after decades of waiting, the question was posted, but this time, even though she was itching to see it, she was determined not to miss class again. So she sat through all her teachers' lectures and teachings, squirming around, anxious for the day to be over.

Lily literally sprinted back to the common room when the bell rang, not even stopping to apologize to a little blond third year she had crashed into. Panting, she arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait. She mumbled the password and climbed in, rushing to the notice board. Even though she ran, she was still the last person to see the question because everyone else didn't mind skipping classes and others had free periods that day, so Lily was still a goody-two-shoes compared to all the other students at Hogwarts. By that time it was already evening.

Lily had a silly grin on her face as she read.

"_Poor animals. They were turned back into shoes. That must have been very painful. It really is. We've tested it. So answer this question honestly because if you don't, we'll transfigure ya'll into…er…ferrets. Anywho._

_Which Marauder do you like best?_

_[] James Potter_

_[] Sirius Black_

_[] Remus Lupin_

_[] Peter Pettigrew_

_Answer TRUTHFULLY!"_

Lily gaped. She was not going to answer that! She hated all the Marauders! Well, besides Remus, but that doesn't exactly count, does it? Besides Lily had an odd gut feeling that she shouldn't be choosing Remus and Lily always, well, almost always listened to her guts.

She tried to walk away. Keyword: tried. Her feet wouldn't move. Lily slapped her forehead. She couldn't move until she answered. Stupid, stupid, stupid Potter! There were only two things she could do now: Answer, or stay first was obviously out of the question, so Lily sat down, her knees bent because her feet were stuck flat on the floor, and she leaned back against the sofa, waiting. It seemed like forever.

"Er..Lily?" Her friends had finally entered the common room and they had caught sight of her lounging on the floor. "What are you doing there?"

"Waiting."

Alice took one look at the colorful parchment pinned to the board and understood at once. "Really, Lily?"

Marlene sighed. "Why can't you just admit that you like Potter?"

"Because I'm not supposed to!" Lily blurted. Her eyes widened. "Hey! I-what in the world? I was joking, you see! Er…hahaha. Ha?" She laughed weakly.

Her friends snorted. "Nice try."

"But you finally admitted it!" Mary squealed.

"I did not! I was thinking about something else!"

"Sure you were." Marlene's comment was laced with sarcasm, but there was a gigantic grin on her face. "Well, anyways. This is huge! We should celebrate!"

"No!" Lily said firmly. "And I'm stuck." she added.

Mary smiled sweetly. "Anyways, I'll go upstairs and get your blankie!" she said cheerfully. "You know, the one Potter passed out to all the girls in our year four years ago."

Lily gasped. "Oh my gosh, how did you know I actually kept that?"

They all looked aghast. "What?"

"Lily, I-I was joking!" Mary choked out, and suddenly her other two friends began giggling uncontrollably.

"I-Oh." Lily blushed to the roots of her hair.

Marlene regained her bubbly personality almost instantly. "Well, there's solid proof!" She exclaimed before bouncing up the stairs. Lily groaned as she felt a blanket flutter onto her the next moment.

"Thanks guys." she muttered, "Can you stay? Pleaseee?"

"Nope! Lily, Maybe you being all alone will motivate you to admit it!" They giggled and ran back upstairs. Lily huffed. What wonderful friends she had. She was lost in her thoughts for a few minutes, but then-

Oomph! Someone had tripped over her.

It was Potter. Again. Honestly, how many times would crash into him? This time had banged her head on his and she rubbed it. Ouch. His skull was hard, and it was because he had a thick skull, get it?

Lily giggled at her own joke. James stared, taken aback, and Lily blushed nervously.

James squinted his eyes. "Ha!" He wagged his finger in Lily's face and she swatted it away.

"What?" She snapped.

"You're blushing! I knew you liked me!" He grinned triumphantly.

"I do not!" She protested wildly.

"Go out with me, Evans?" The question Lily knew so well was back.

_Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. _That word seemed to be repeating itself in her mind, and it gave her a pounding headache. "NO!" Lily yelled. "I would never say yes to you! Never!"

"You will one day!" He whistled and walked away, seeming not at all fazed by her rejection.

Lily crossed her arms and leaned back into the sofa, closing her eyes. Before she knew it, she was fast asleep…

Lily's eyes opened a smidge. It was dark, and the light from the Gryffindor fireplace was dim. Someone with shoulder length black hair was leaning over her, holding her wand. Her wand! She was about to get up when the person slipped the stick back into her pocket. What was that all about? And that person looked oddly like James' friend Sirius…but Lily couldn't think. She was too sleepy. She felt her eyelids drooping, and then she fell asleep once again…

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"Eeeek!" Lily squealed as something soft and squishy hit her face. It was a pillow Alice had thrown at her.

"Wakey wakey!"

Lily hauled herself and sat up. The ground had been very comfortable and soft, though still not as comfortable as her bed.

"I still can't believe you actually sat out here!"

"Well, she'd do anything to get out of admitting she likes James!" Alice piped up.

"Yeah!" Lily said forcefully.

"Notice that she never actually denied it." Mary snickered.

"Hey! That's not fair!"

"Life's not fair. Now get up, you're going to be late for classes!"

Lily slapped her forehead. "Oh no! I was so caught up in not answering I forgot all about classes! I can't move, now what am I gonna do?!" She moaned. She tried to get up, but she fell back down when her foot 'slipped'. "I can move!" Lily said, amazed.

"Fantastic." Marlene deadpanned. "Now, classes?"

Lily gave a shriek and went to get ready, but not before thinking deeply. _How come she was able to move even though she never answered? The spell must've wore off, yes, that's it. There was no way Potter could be so good at Charms so obviously his spell would wear off quickly…_

Lily was frantically doing homework. NEWTS, or Nastily Exhasting Wizarding Tests were drawing closer and closer. Well, for Lily it was, but to others it seemed ages away, and it actually _was_ ages away. It wasn't even the winter holidays yet, though they were nearby. Lily was such a workaholic, but everyone knew that already.

Because she was so caught up in homework, she hardly gave the Marauders a second thought, that is, until they finally struck again.

It was four days later; the wait was shorter this time. Lily had a great nights' sleep. There were no dreams about You-Know-Who (And no, she doesn't mean Voldemort.) And she had fallen asleep just about the instant her head hit her pillow.

Lily sat up in bed and stretched. Like every other morning, she was the first one up, but something seemed…different.

Lily ran a hand through her hair. Wait, what? Lily hardly ever did that. That was what James did. She looked over to Marlene's bed. Sirius was in it. Merlin's balls!

She shrieked, but it came out more of a low pitched yell. "What in the world are you doing here?" Her just was low and it sounded just like-Potter. Oh no.

Sirius sat up in Marlene's bed and yelled when he saw Lily. "Potter!"

"What? I'm Lily!"

"Lil-what? Lily?" Sirius' eyes widened in shock.

"Yeah! Who are you?" She questioned.

"Marlene!"

"Marlene! I thought you were Sirius!" Lily exclaimed. Sirius/Marlene gasped and pulled a handheld mirror from her bedside drawer. She looked like she was about to faint when she saw her reflection in it.

"Oh my gosh!"

"Wait, wait, wait." Lily waved her arms as something abruptly clunk into place. "You're actually Marlene?" Sirius nodded. "Marauders! Their question!"

"Of course!" Realization dawned on Sirius/Marlene's face.

"I bet Mary chose Remus so Remus is going to be in Mary's bed." She was right.

"Re-er, I mean Mary, why does Remus have all these scars?" Marlene asked slowly.

Lily froze. She was Remus' friend and found about his secret years ago, but she didn't care and didn't tell anyone, not even her closest friends. It just wasn't her secret to tell. "They're battle scars. He was attacked when he was a child and the scars are still there." She lied smoothly. She had prepared this statement earlier just in case, because she knew she was terrible at making up stories on the spot. And it wasn't completely a lie anyways, they _were_ battle scars that Remus had gotten when he was little, but not all of them. Mary seemed to believe her.

Now, they actually looked like three of the Marauders.

Lily bit her lip. "Won't they feel…violated?"

Her two friends roared with laughter and the tension was eased. "Only you would think of something like that. Only you, Lils."

It turned out Alice had chosen Peter Pettigrew, because she felt sorry for him, she said, and she thought no one was going to chose him and she didn't want him to feel bad. Trust Alice to make her choice based on that, and it was super Hufflepuff-ly.

Funnily enough, the four girls-or boys, depending on how you look at it, were the first in the Great Hall, probably thanks to Lily's quick thinking and problem-solving.

"Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew!" McGonagall barked at them as she came down from the staff table. "Why are you early?"

The girls exchanged looks. Perhaps it was time to cause some trouble. _Blimey, her friends were really bad influences on he_r, Lily thought, though she was inwardly grinning. _Or maybe it was because of the state she was in. When in Rome, do as the Romans do! Or in this case, When you're in Potter's body, do what Potter does!_

"How're you, Minnie?" Sirius/Marlene said innocently.

"I told you not to call me that! It's Professor McGonagall to you." She peered at them.

"Minnie!" Peter/Alice called, grinning.

"Minnie, Minnie, Minnie!" They all chanted together.

"Detention for all of you for disrespect towards a professor." the professor said calmly, but the shadow of a smile crossed her face. Just then, more Potters, Blacks, Lupins, and Pettigrews entered the Great Hall, all looking flustered, though it was nothing compared to McGonagall's face now.

"My word!" She exclaimed. She turned back to Lily and her friends. "You _are_ the real ones, aren't you?"

"Of course!" Lily/James answered before they returned to the Gryffindor table. Alice was wrong in assuming that nobody would become Peter. There was whole table full of Peters dressed in green and silver to their right. This was one of the pranks which hadn't affected the teachers. Alice seemed to be regretting her choice. Two Blacks near Lily were arguing. One thought that being Sirius was good, because, well, they could actually be Sirius. The other was complaining because she couldn't wear skirts when she was like this because she would look terrible. Lily privately agreed…

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Now she was back in the library, sitting in her usual seat.

Everyone had asked about the scars on Remus, and Lily had said the same thing to them as she had said to Mary: they were battle scars. Her rumor had flown around and all the girls' began to swoon over him because they seemed to think he was a 'brave, muscular, hero'. All the giggling and rumors had given Lily a headache, which was why she had taken refuge in the library.

"Evans?" Someone called. Potter. Or maybe it was a Potter look-alike, she couldn't tell.

His face split into a wide grin when he saw Lily. "I knew it! I knew you would choose me!"

Well, this was the real Potter alright.

"I didn't!" Lily protested. "Someone else did! I wouldn't answer so I stayed there and someone with black hair did it! It was a guy, though."

His eyes widened. "Padfoot!" He called, scampering away.

"Out!" A shrill voice screamed. Madam Pince. "No yelling in the library!" The librarian shooed her out the door, and Lily stomped her foot.

"Gee, thanks for getting me kicked out of the library, Potter." She muttered to no one in particular.

Lily made her way back to the common room in the worst of moods.

"Noooo!" James was moaning. "Why, Padfoot, why?"

Sirius grinned as the portrait hole opened and Lily climbed through. The other Gryffindors weren't paying any attention. It seemed like they were already used to the Marauders antics.

"I bet you would've chosen me even if Sirius hadn't done it for you!" He yelled to her.

"That was you?!" Lily yelped. He nodded. "Black!" She growled at him "How dare you!" She tried to tackle him, but he yelped and ran away up the boy's staircase. What a brilliant show of Gryffindor courage. Lily turned back to James. "And no I wouldn't have. Are you stupid? Why do you think I was stuck there in the first place?"

He ignored her comments. "Oh, you so would have!" He yelled gleefully, cackling.

"I would never!" Lily angrily stomped her foot again.

"I don't believe you." He sing-songed, laughing at her.

"Too bad for you then." Lily deadpanned, feeling annoyed and irritated. She picked up her bag again and marched up the girls' stairs, as everyone watched and stared at this exchange. The Lily-James arguments were always amusing, as her friends' had told her that before.

"I still don't believe you!" He called again. Lily couldn't think of a comeback and she just threw a 'Whatever' back at him...

But the fact that Potter didn't believe that she didn't like him wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was the fact that Lily didn't even believe it herself. Oh, bugger!

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**A/N**

**Well? Is it long enough? :) I hope you liked it! There might be some mistakes...**

**Thank you to , awesomeness33 and Jess&Darcy for these ideas! I love you all!**

**And finally, review!**

**-TheEvilPinkCupcake**

**P.S. I sort of edited it...just a tad.**

**P.P.S. Thanks for all the ideas! I have a lot now!**


	7. The Sixth Question

**A/N**

**Oh my. I've been away for quite awhile. I'm sorry :'(**

**Over 100 reviewers (108 to be precise) for just 6 chapters! Eeep! I love you all so much!**

**[virtual hug] [virtual cookie] [virtual cake]**

**Well there's your present :P **

**Disclaimer: Everything you recognize is property of J.K. Rowling.**

**Here it is! :)**

* * *

Lily was very, very, very, very, confused. Befuddled. Confuzzled. Bamboozled. Whatever you want to call it. For six long years, Lily had despised James Potter. Hated. Detested. Loathed. Scorned. All those words work. However, now, every time he was nearby, Lily stomach would do back flips and she could no longer yell at him like before, when she could scream at him for almost 15 minutes straight without stopping. Now, when she got within two feet of him to start yelling, her heart would begin jumping around wildly, and she would have to run away as fast as she could, leaving a clueless James Potter behind her.

She didn't know what was going on. Well, actually that was a lie. She _did_ know what was going on, she just refused to believe it.

Lily was very relieved when she woke up the next morning and she was Lily again. Being Potter was very uncomfortable. When she passed by the halls all the other fake-Marauders who were probably actually girls, would be staring at everyone, like they usually stared at the real Marauders. But because all of Hogwarts was being occupied by the 'Marauders', there was a lot of staring going on, and Lily hated it. She also had to wait extremely long to use the washroom, and she was quite sure it was because Marlene and Mary were admiring their reflections of Sirius and Remus in the mirror. Alice was another story. She had chosen Peter out of pity, and with those watering eyes and rat-like face, she hated looking in the mirror and whenever she caught sight of her reflection as Peter, she would give a squeak of disgust or terror (Lily couldn't tell) and she would run, doing an uncanny impression of the real Peter.

After some disastrous consequences after answering the Marauder's questions, this time she was determined not to answer this time.

"I'm not going to check the questions anymore." She told her friends confidently the afternoon the next ones had been posted.

"Okay." Marlene said. They all went back doing homework. Lily's eyes narrowed and she was suspiciously looking from Marlene to Mary to Alice and back. Normally, if she knew her friends, they would begin screaming and overreacting, begging her to rethink her decision, so why did they suddenly not care?

_Well,_ she thought, if they don't care, I won't either! She said in her head defiantly. She went back to her essay. Or rather, tried to go back to her Herbology essay. She flipped through the book.

_Dittany is a powerful healing herb and restorative and may be eaten raw to cure shallow wounds._

**Go check the notice.**

_Flobberworm mucus is a popular potion thickener._

**I know you want to. I mean, don't you want to find out what it says?**

The nagging voice at the back of her head was at it again.

_Aconite is sometimes called monkshood or wolfsbane._

** Don't you want to read it? Don't you want to? DON'T YOU? OF COURSE YOU DO!**

Lily scowled and buried her nose deeper into her book.

_The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it._

Cry. Lily wanted to cry. She liked James bloody Potter, for god's sake! She gasped, but her friends ignored it. _Forget what you just thought, _she told herself. It almost worked. Almost.

_ The Wiggentree is a magical rowan that will protect anyone touching its trunk from the attack of Dark creatures._

Dark creatures. Remus was a werewolf, Lily had figured that out long ago, but she didn't care. **Remus was still Remus. He was still one of the Marauders. Marauders. James Potter was a Marauder too!**

_ Never eat the leaves of the Alihotsy tree (also known as the Hyena tree). These leaves cause uncontrollable laughter._

**Hyena. An animal. What was up with the Marauder's nicknames anyways?**

_ Moly is a powerful plant that can be eaten to counteract enchantments. It is a black-stemmed plant with white flowers._

Finally! She found what she was looking for.

Enchantments. That reminded her of the questions. Or was it because a specific Marauder was rather enchanting?

Lily kept reading. When she was done, she looked at her piece of parchment. Normally, as she read the book, her hand would begin writing and by the time she had finished reading, her essay would also be done. Not this time. Her paper was empty except for a few messy splatters of ink in the bottom right corner.

Exasperated, frustrated, and annoyed, she closed her book loudly and huffily stalked out the library without saying anything to her friends.

When she left, Alice looked up and smiled smugly. "I knew she'd cave soon!"

Lily fast-walked back to the Gryffindor common room and to the notice board which was covered in papers.

* * *

"_Back to yourself, I see. Pity. I quite liked it when we dominated the world. Or at least Hogwarts. Anyways._

_ Which teacher is the most annoying?_

_ Good luck._

_ P.S. Go out with me, Evans?_

_ P.P.S. It's Potter if you didn't know._

_ P.P.P.S. And you don't need to answer, I know what you're going to say already._

_ P.P.P.P.S. You're going to say yes, of course!_

_ P.P.P.P.P.S. Right?_

_ P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Of course._

_ P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. See you this Hogsmeade weekend!_

_ P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. I can't wait!_

_ P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Bet you can't, either. ;)_

_ P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Bye-bye, love. :)"_

* * *

This was when Lily was supposed to start yelling.

"I knew it!" squealed a voice. Mary. "I knew'd you'd cave, Lily! We tried to act like we didn't care, but we knew'd you come anyways!"

Marlene groaned, but she grinned. "Oh, just go ahead blurt out our whole plan, Mary!"

"Heh. Sorry."

Lily glared. "You planned this?!" She tried to lunge and them but because of her unmoving feet, she fell face down on the floor.

She stood up and nursed her nose. "I hate you guys." She groaned. "But I don't know how to answer this!"

"How do you not know?"

"Because they're _professors!_." Lily said, as if that solved everything.

"Exactly! I chose Binns. The obvious choice, I think. The way he just drones on and on irritates me." Marlene explained.

"Well at least he teaches, unlike…!" A light bulb went off in Lily's head. "Professor Castallanta. That stupid Divination teacher, how she predicts everyone's death; she's a stupid stupid stupid fraud!"

"All right then…" They backed away at Lily's furious outburst and she turned back and wrote _Crystal Castallanta _in her loopy handwriting.

She shuddered just thinking about what might happen. And she found out the next morning.

Lily didn't wake up in her pajamas, but she didn't notice at first. It was nearing February, and because of the cold weather Lily slept in sweatpants and and t-shirt. She always woke up wearing that. But not today. She didn't even notice until she had caught sight of herself in the bathroom mirror.

Instead of her usual sleepwear, she was wearing an ugly olive green cotton dress. There was a deep red scarf tied around her head in the place of a headband and many thick-chained necklaces hung around her neck. There were black thick-rimmed round glasses perched on her nose, and a thick woolen shawl was wrapped around her upper body. Lily immediately knew who she looked like.

She was almost an exact replica of Professor Castallanta and she looked _terrible._ Lily looked even worse than the real Divination professor, and that was really saying something.

She ran to her closet. Every single outfit was the same as the one she had on.

"Potter!" She roared, and sped out the door and down the stairs, holding up her long dress with her hand. Mary's yell sounded after her, followed by others, and soon, there was a huge crowd of people in the common room, all of them dressed as different professors.

They all waited impatiently. About fifteen minutes later, the Marauders finally skipped down the boys' dormitory stairs cheerfully. "What's go-ah, I see our spell has taken effect. Have fun!" They quickly left.

Lily was the first person in the Great Hall again and was immediately seen by McGonagall's sharp eyes.

"Miss Evans! What are you wearing?!" She exclaimed, aghast. Lily took one look at the professor and had to restrain herself from yelling "Professor! What are _YOU _wearing?!"

Professor McGonagall waited for an answer, even though she probably knew the answer already anyways. And besides, she was in no position to talk, for she was wearing the exact same outfit Lily was.

Lily was saved from answering when more students in teachers' clothing moodily trudged into the Hall. Clear comprehension dawned on McGonagall's face, and she muttered 'Marauders'. She knew there was nothing she could do.

Alice, Marlene, and Alice all came in later, all of them looking pale and translucent. Though they were walking, it looked more like floating instead, and they were obviously the girl versions of Professor Binns. They were also bald.

Lily immediately cracked up laughing and for a moment she felt like her own outfit wasn't that bad, compared to theirs.

"I pity you." She said, wiping tears of laughter away. They grumbled in response.

The Slytherins looked like Marlene, Alice, and Mary; all of them were bald and translucent, looking similar to ghosts. But it seemed like Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape and Narcissa Black were singled out. They all wore a long robe adorned with star shaped sequins, and they all had Dumbledore's long white beard. It was hard to say who looked the most ridiculous.

"Ugh, figures I'd get the worse choice again!" Alice moaned when she saw the Slytherins. Lily privately disagreed. After her moment of laughing at them, she began feeling very uncomfortable in her hot clothes. It felt stuffy and Lily hated it. But there was nothing she could do. By this time she had learned that no spell would work on these and she had stopped trying a long time ago, because it was all in vain anyways.

Breakfast was very eventful, with all the teachers in other teacher's clothing which belonged to the professor who they disliked the most.

Lily was extremely glad she didn't take Divination anymore. The professor misunderstood the whole thing. Instead of thinking she was being mocked, she thought she was being honored, and she cornered Lily in the Great Hall right after lunch.

"My dear…" Her voice wobbled as she approached. "Thank you, thank you!"

"For what?" Lily snapped. She had little patience with this teacher, and past experiences didn't help either.

"Your clothing, darling, of course!"

Lily became even more irritated. "What about them?" She shot back snobbily.

"Just that, I always knew you secretly liked Divination, dear…I wondered…Why have you not continued it? Why, indeed…"

"_Like Divination?_ I don't-" Lily began, but she was rudely cut off when the professor's face brightened.

"No worries, dear, I understand." She patted her head. "You love the subject, but after you found that you have absolutely no talent in it, you pretended to hate it and you quit. I'm very sorry, Miss Evans, maybe you can find another subject if Divination is not right for you." She smiled and hobbled off.

"I didn't know you secretly loved Divination." said a snide voice. Lily whirled around and nearly tripped on her long gown.

"What do _you _want, Potter?" She demanded angrily.

"Nothing." He said smugly. "I just overheard you two talking, and I never knew you had a secret passion for Divination!"

"I don't!" Lily said, glad she didn't have to run away yet.

"That's not what I heard." He smiled slyly.

"Potter-" Lily began.

"No worries, darling!" He said, imitating the professor. "I understand." He patted her cheek and began walking away, chortling.

Lily did not know what made her say it. All she knew was that one minute, he was walking away and Lily was holding her burning face, and the next minute, she had called after him.

She blurted out, "Wait! Aren't you going to ask me out?!" She clapped her hand over her mouth and then buried her face in her hands. She turned to run, but ran right into Potter, who was standing in front of her with his hands in his pockets.

He smirked. "Now, normally, I would, but not today."

Lily half wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole, but the other half was threatening to burst into tears. James Potter _not _wantto ask her out? She mentally smacked herself for being so overdramatic. (_Stop it, Lily! It's just Potter, you've never cried over Potter before! Well, except for the time he embarrassed you in front of the whole Great Hall. And the time he punched Evan Boot because he asked you out. And the time he dated that Hufflepuff…Alright, fine. She'd cried over Potter a lot of times. But it was never because he said he didn't want to ask her out.)_

Lily was pulled from her reverie when James began to talk again.

"So, not today, Lily. It'd be too weird, like I'm asking Professor Castallanta to go out with me." He shuddered and made a disgusted face. Lily unconsciously breathed a long sigh of relief.

Now, back up a bit! Hold on a second, why did she care anyways? Ah, she knew why she cared. Because he didn't like Professor Castallanta, so he wasn't a gerontaphile. Yes, that must be it. But Lily knew that Potter wasn't a gerontaphile already. If he was, he wouldn't have been asking her out for the past five or six years. Lily hated it when she found big holes in her own argument.

She sighed deeply in resignation. She had to admit that her reason was extremely stupid. The only reason she would be relieved that Potter still liked her was because she liked him back.

But that idea was absolutely preposterous!

Sadly, yes, it was ridiculous, but it was true. If someone had told her five or six years ago that she would be admitting to herself that she liked Potter in her seventh year, she would either have accused that person of being of Potter under Polyjuice Potion or started a long rant about all the horrible things about James.

_ She liked James Potter. _It finally hit her, smacking her right in the face. Lily gave an extremely loud gasp, turned, and ran, not hearing James mumble behind her: "Well, I guess I made a little progress…"

Lily sprinted back to the Gryffindor common room, hoping she wouldn't bump into anyone.

"Mary, Marlene! Alice!" She called. They were lounging on the couch. Lily grabbed Mary and Alice's arms. "You too, Marlene!" She dragged them upstairs, huffing and puffing.

"Lily-What's going on?" Mary exclaimed.

Suddenly, Lily felt very awkward and afraid. She looked at the floor and shuffled her feet. "I need to tell you guys something."

There was a long pause.

"Oh, no! Did you get a T on the Charms Essay?" Marlene suddenly yelled. She burst out laughing.

"Guys! This is serious!" Lily shouted, and everyone sobered immediately.

Silence.

"You're not pregnant, are you?" Mary broke in, looking genuinely worried.

"ARGH! Gross! No! Never! That's just-Ugh!" Lily blurted.

They all breathed a sigh of relief, like they were all thinking the same thing.

"You're not seeing someone secretly?" Alice supplied.

Lily scowled. "Of course not!"

"Then what is it?"

"I-I-" She stuttered. Lily leaned forward after looking around for eavesdroppers and said in a low, pained,whisper. "I think I-I might l-like James P-Potter."

Their reaction was not what she had expected.

"I knew it!" They loudly bellowed together.

"Ha! It's not Christmas yet, you owe me ten galleons, Marlene!"

"You owe me five, Mary! It's not Easter yet, either!"

"Yes! Fifteen galleons to me!"

"You owe me too, Alice!"

"I can't believe I lost!"

"Now I can buy that sparkly color-changing ink I wanted!"

"YOU GUYS BET ON THIS?!" Lily screamed.

They all looked at her with an 'are you stupid?' look.

"Of course! I think the whole school bet on you!"

"Yeah! When everyone finds out. lots of people will be raking in the galleons!" Alice added cheerfully.

"Wait a second!" Lily snapped. "I am _not_ telling anyone. And you are _not_ going to either!"

"Why not, Lily?" Marlene pouted.

"Because Potter does _not _like me back." She stated forcefully.

They all looked at her incredulously. "Are you stupid, Lily?" Marlene said.

"He's been asking you out since fifth year!"

"…Fine." Lily crossed her arms. "But we still aren't going to let the new leak out. _Right, girls?_" She added menacingly.

"Awww…" Mary said, but at the frightening look on Lily's face she quickly agreed.

"But Lily! This could be your only chance for Happily ever After!" Marlene said.

Lily snorted. "I'll have tons more chances. Don't be silly."

"I am NOT being silly!" Marlene said indignantly.

Lily shot her a hard look, and that was the end of that conversation.

* * *

Sadly, it led to other conversations like:

_"Psst. Lily!" Alice whispered._

_ "What?!" Lily snapped back. Alice had been calling her name nonstop, and she was trying to take History of Magic notes!_

_ "Look behind you!"_

_ Lily huffed and turned 180 degrees. Potter was leaning back on two legs of the chair and when he saw her looking, he winked cheekily._

_ Scowling and ignoring her fluttering heart, she turned back to her notes, occasionally shooing away Alice's hand which was continuously trying to poke her shoulder._

Lily was already regretting telling her teasing friends but she knew that there was no point keeping it from them anyways. They'd notice her acting weird and would worm it out of her.

Lily wished she could turn back time to when she still wholeheartedly despised Potter and there were no conflicting feelings. But she couldn't. So day after day she endured the fast beating of her heart and the light blushes. Lily already acted odd before, but now that her crush was confirmed, she acted even weirder, always leaving behind a confused James Potter. Poor boy.

* * *

**A/N**

**Pretty long, eh? :) Right, the bolded words for 'the nagging voice' is a bit confusing, and it was hard to figure out which ones to bold myself, so sorry if you get mixed up a bit.**

**This idea is from x. Nymphadora .x (without the spaces because it doesn't work) I tweaked it a bit. Thanks!**

**There might also be some mistakes. Feel free to tell me; i won't get mad or anything :)**

**I know that not much about the question or the results happened much in this chapter, but that's because this chapter is focusing on Lily finally admitting that she liked James.**

**And yes, she admitted it a bit early in the story, but I'm thinking that somewhere later there's going to be something that makes Lily try super hard to hate him again. We can't have Lily being all lovey-dovey already, right? :P**

**Finally, you know the drill! Review!**

**Thanks and I love you guys, again!**

**-TheEvilPinkCupcake**


	8. The Seventh Question

**A/N**

**I'm back! Did you miss me? Of course you did! Well, I'm so so sorry for the wait, but I was banned from the computer for a week (with the exception of homework) for forgetting to take out the trash. And then I got myself banned another week because I forgot that I was banned and I came on anyways...Whoops.**

**Oh yeah, did I mention my account in Pottermore? I don't think I did...so add me as a friend! My username's DawnMoon28538!**

**So here it is. The chapter in honor of Halloween 3 weeks after the holiday. Whoopsie-daisies. Heh. Sorry.**

**(xxDazzled11xx, here's the update you've been waiting for! ;))**

**Disclaimer: Everything you recognize is property of JK Rowling.**

* * *

James Potter was confused. There was no doubt about it. Even Lily's friends noticed the little clouds of worry and concern that appeared whenever Lily wouldn't look him in the eye or she refrained from talking to him and avoided him in the halls. Of course part of Mary, Marlene, and Alice found it absolutely hilarious, but the other half was deeply disappointed that Potter had not pieced together the pieces and caught on yet. There was also something else. He had not asked Lily out since she had turned him down yet again, saying that she would _never_ say yes, even when a little nagging voice was persistently telling her to. All James had been doing since then was trying to make polite small talk. It made things even more odd.

On a gloomy afternoon, clouds obscured the sunlight, making everything seem dull and gray. Lily's mood matched the weather outside. She thought-no, she _knew_-that it was all Potter's fault.

Professor McGonagall had told everyone that there was going to be a quiz on Wednesday to prepare everyone for N.E.W.T. year, and as a result, the very next day Lily had sped to the library first thing after breakfast to study, However, fifteen minutes later, the Marauders strolled in haughtily, much to Lily's surprise. She thought that the Marauders didn't even know what a library was.

Now Lily couldn't concentrate; even James' presence made her feel uneasy. Another ten minute passed and Lily had accomplished absolutely nothing. She got up and in the process, she caught James' eye. Suddenly feeling quite flustered, all her books spilled out of her arms and landed on the ground with a rather loud thud. Ignoring the amused looks sent her way by Potter, she gathered up her books and rushed out of the library, her face oddly flushed.

"Lily , where have you been?" demanded Marlene as she came stomping towards her. "We have looked everywhere for you!"

Lily looked at her. "And where did you look?" Everyone felt an odd sense of déjà vu.

Marlene saw this coming and grinned triumphantly. "The common room, the quidditch pitch, the Great Hall, and the Charms and Transfiguration corridors."

"And…er…you didn't check the library?"

"Well you told me not to last time!" Marlene said defensively.

Lily face-palmed. "I didn't tell you not to, I just said that I didn't spend _all _my time in the library." Raising her voice, she added. "Why were you looking for me?"

Alice answered. "We saw another question, but we wanted you to come with us this time, because for the past six, you've answered them alone."

Lily suddenly frowned and the others looked at her questionably.

"I'm not going to check it anymore." She said determinedly. When amusement appeared on everyone's faces, she added, "I really mean it this time. Seriously. I mean, this question thing has brought me nothing but-"

"Love?" Marlene cut in cheekily.

"Happiness?" Mary continued, grinning.

"One step closer to happy ever after?" Alice asked.

"NO! It's brought me nothing but-but-conflicted feelings! If I pretend nothing happened, then everything can go back to normal!"

They stared for a second, then chuckled lightly. "Lily, you've admitted that you liked Potter. Things will never be normal again. Ever."

"I wasn't thinking straight when I told you that!" Lily cried.

"No, you WERE in your right mind then. It's now that your brain is all addled because of all the love in the air!" Alice said cheerfully. "So are you coming or not?"

There was a long pause. "Fine." Lily sighed defeatedly. "Curiousity killed the cat you know." she grumbled.

"Yeah, but the curious cat found her Prince Charming and got a happy ending!" Alice chirped.

Lily groaned. "You guys are going to be the death of me…"

"Then at least tell Potter you like him before you die!"

Lily groaned again and followed her friends as they made their way to the familiar piece of parchment pinned up on the board. They gathered round and began to read.

_"Why welcome, ex-professors! Did you try to take off as much points from Slytherin as you could? Well it probably didn't work because she didn't know how to do that."_

Lily smirked triumphantly.

_"But we're working on it."_

Lily's smirk turned into a scowl.

"_So in the meantime, what's your current greatest fear?_

_ P.S. This is for Halloween! Well duh._

_ P.P.S. Don't bother hiding it, or we'll just set a boggart on you._

_ P.P.P.S. Don't choose Old Voldy or dementors or infer. It will not be good if a couple of them began to run around Hogwarts or something,"_

Lily had no idea what to choose; silently, she watched as all the other girls entered their fear.

Marlene: lizards. The way they could crawl up walls and onto the ceilings. She was always afraid they would fall on her head.

Mary: worms. She just hated them.

Alice: toads. They were icky.

Lily: Unknown.

But not anymore. Suddenly she knew. With the war looming closer and closer, she was obviously afraid of losing her loved ones.

So Lily entered her fear: _Losing the people I love_, and she nervously watched the words disappear into the paper as if it was being absorbed by a sponge.

* * *

Looking back on her choice later on, Lily felt like she should've chosen somethingg smaller and less insignificant, like maybe and insect or animal. The post had said that the Marauders wouldn't want something too frightening parading around the school, and a couple of dead people were certainly scary, especially if those people were people Lily loved. Lily had tried to re-answer, but it hadn't worked. Like always, she had said the spell and tapped her wand on the paper, but this time, instead of disappearing, they literally jumped off the page and exploded in her face, showering her with colorful sparks and ash.

The parchment now had big words that read: TRYING TO ANSWER AGAIN, EH?

Lily had then rushed to the dormitories and fixed her appearance, though not before being laughed at by people in the common room who had seen.

* * *

Halloween. Lily was dreading this day. She knew that _something _was going to happen today. The questions answers. The Marauders had even said that the question was in honor of Halloween…unless it was a trick. and nothing would happen. They liked to strike when you least expected it. Six years with the Marauders had taught Lily to think outside the box: Expect the unexpected. But you couldn't expect the unexpected or it would become expected. So you have to expect the expected or unexpected the unexpected. DId that even make sense?

Anyways, Lily knew something was going to happen. She just had a gut feeling.

She didn't have much of an appetite, and she cursed herself again for not thinking things through and actually telling them her greatest fear. She didn't eat much breakfast; she was too afraid that some dead bodies would suddenly leap out at her from the pile of pancakes or the plate of treacle tarts. Maybe she was being paranoid, but she couldn't help it. Oddly enough, nobody else seemed to notice that it was the day the results would probably come, but they _did_ notice Lily's uneasiness.

"What's wrong, Lily?"

"It's Halloween." she answered simply, and in reply, all she got were some confused looks. "The questions…Remember? What is your greatest fear?"

Comprehension dawned on their faces and they even looked a bit fearful.

"They won't turn us _into_ our fear will they?" Mary asked.

"They couldn't…" Lily frowned.

"Why not?"

"Because-Because I put that my fear was losing my loved ones and unless they Polyjuice and then k-kill me, then they can't turn me into another dead person."

Marlene agreed and nodded. "She's right. What if someone's afraid of the ground or the dark? They can't turn someone into the floor or into darkness."

"…uh, no one's afraid of the ground." Alice said.

"Yeah, it's called Terriphobia!" she retorted.

"Terr-A-phobia. And it's fear of being _on _the ground and not just of the ground." Lily butt in. "Yeah, whatever, let's go." She no longer felt so afraid.

History of Magic was very boring, as usual. Charms…was very eventful. But not in a good way. James had tripped over Sirius' foot, which was obviously intentionally outstretched. He had knocked over a table, which had knocked over two more, and those two had pushed over another two. His wand had flown out of his hand and bonked Sarah Midgen on the nose, shooting her with a powerful jet of water. She had flown backwards into Professor Flitwik's podium and had slid to the ground, unconscious.

The professor squeaked and toppled out of sight. His head appeared from a pile of books and he said, "Detention, Potter, Black!"

James scowled but said nothing. He glared at Sirius, who looked like he was trying not to laugh.

After Charms, Lily bravely decided to corner the boys-especially Potter.

"Hey Evans." He said simply, grinning. Lily tried not to blush by gritting her teeth, but James mistook this for anger and the smile slipped off his face.

He looked slightly fearful. Lily said, "You're Head Boy! You. are. not. supposed. to. get. detention!" Each word was accompanied by a jab to his chest. And it was odd that this was only James' second detention this year; normally he'd have about twenty after two months. "I've told you a million times," Lily continued. "that you need to act your age!"

"But we _do_ act our age!"

Lily made an odd noise, like something was stuck in her throat, and she snorted disbelievingly.

"We _do!_" He insisted. "You're the one who acts like an eighty-year-old crabby lady!"

Lily gave a furious huff and sauntered off. But she couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day.

That afternoon, as she walked out the classroom, Lily felt pleased with herself for being able to turn her chair into a pig.

"So," Marlene began. "Can I borrow your notes on transfiguring objects into animals, Lily?"

"Marlene, you didn't take notes _again_?"

"…Please?" She gave Lily a puppy dog face.

Lily sighed. "Fine. But this is the last time!" Marlene didn't bother to point out that Lily had said this thousands of times. "Hey-where-I-oh no!" Lily said.

"What's wrong, Lily?" Mary asked, concerned.

"I left my book in Professor McGonagall's classroom! I'll be right back-go to the common room and wait for me there!" She sprinted away.

The door was unlocked, and the room was empty. _How stupid of McGonagall, _Lily thought, _the Marauders could easily barge in and wreck the place any second. She should've at least locked the door!_

Lily found her notes serving as a bookmark.

Suddenly, the door that had swung shut behind her creaked open by itself, but Lily didn't notice. Her eyes were fixed on the scene before her. The book slipped from her fingers and fell with a loud thump.

She wasn't prepared to see this. Her mind was blank, and she was frozen. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the people lying in front of her.

Petunia was among them. She was clearly dead. Her clothes were soaked with a dark red liquid-blood.

Lily forced herself to look away, but her green eyes immediately landed on something worse.

Her parents. Dead. They weren't covered in blood, but they were pale and bony, and their blank eyes stared up at the ceiling, unblinking and glossy.

Then were was Marlene. Dead Alice. Dead Mary. Each one made her feel worse and worse. It felt like she had been thrown into another world where she was the last one alive. It surprised her.

Though not as much as the last body she saw in the line.

Potter. Lily's mind clouded. Her vision blurred. She couldn't think. Never had she seen him look so vulnerable, and so-so…_dead._

"Oh gosh, Lily! I'm sorry, I didn't know!" a familiar voice suddenly yelped. Lily couldn't tell who it was-she still felt dizzy.

Tears came to her eyes just thinking about all the deaths she just saw, and she silently cried in the stranger's arms.

But…wait. It was no stranger.

"POTTER!" Lily exploded furiously, standing up so forcefully and quickly the James was flung away from her and sent sprawling. He sat up and rubbed his head sheepishly.

Lily roared, "How dare you!" She looked livid. "You idiotic, dumb, stupid, arrogant, evil, horrible, irritating, annoying toe rag! That was heartless, cruel, and inhumane!" Her eyes were still wet and teary, but that only added to her intimidating look. James somehow seemed to know that this was not the time to be his usual cocky self. Lily continued yelling. "Jerk! I hate you I hate you I hate you!"

Suddenly, she turned and ran out the door, leaving a guilty James Potter alone in the dark.

* * *

The Gryffindor common room. That's where Lily was headed because that was surely where her friends were. If she wanted to be alone she would have gone to the library but right now she needed comfort-more specifically, she wanted comfort from her friends and not Potter.

They were there and had started a game of Exploding Snap. Their giggling stopped abruptly upon seeing Lily's red eyes, and all of their grins were immediately replaced by looks of shock.

Lily continued sprinting up the staircase, knowing that Alice, Marlene, and Mary would loyally follow.

They did, stumbling through the doorway, concern and worry, clearly etched on their faces. Lily hardly ever cried, even if it was Potter. She either yelled, screamed, or roared at him. Not cry.

Except now. She cried as she spilled everything she had just seen to her friends, because seeing all the people she cared about lying limp and pale as a ghost had stirred something deep inside of her, and she was now feeling a combination of different emotions.

* * *

1. Grief. Anyone who had just seen an image of their friends and family dead would have felt that. (Unless they had no heart.)

2. Anger. Hundreds of deaths had already been caused by one cruel man and his followers, and it was for selfish reasons. Lily was mad at them. How could someone turn out so wrong?

3. Lily was afraid. Obviously. Lily hadn't seen death before, especially not one of someone in her own family. This was her first realistic taste at how cruel the Death Eaters actually could be, and it scared her.

4. Readiness. Seeing people die had opened her eyes and she no longer thought of the Wizarding World as an _almost _perfect utopia, but more like the dark, dangerous place it was quickly becoming.

* * *

Lily shuffled down the stairs, already feeling considerable better after the comforting words of her confidants.

Unfortunately, Potter was standing at the foot of the stairs, looking gobsmacked.

"What do you want?" Lily snapped.

"You care." He said simply.

"What?"

"About me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Lily said, with her nose in the air. But really, she had no idea what he was talking about.

It only occurred to Lily later on during an especially boring class. Her fear was losing the people she loved. The result included Petunia, Mom, Dad, Alice, Mary, Marlene, and…Potter. Holy crap.

* * *

**A/N**

**A bit shorter, I know, and I'm not very good at angsty saddish scenes, so sorry! But be glad I updated. :) **

**This idea of a Halloween was given to me by a guest, so thanks whoever you are! Also, last time I threw out a nasty author's note asking for ideas about Lily's greatest fear, and SO MANY PEOPLE HELPED. AHH! I love you all! But obviously I couldn't choose all of them, so I picked one I thought would fit pretty well. Thanks to Airene Archerway! (I hope I got your name right!)**

**Gimme an R! Gimme an E! Gimme a V! Gimme an I! Gimme an E! Gimme a W! That spells review, yeah yeah yeah!**

**(Translation: Review please :D)**

**Remember to add me in Pottermore again! ****DawnMoon28538. That's ****DawnMoon28538. Add me now! (Say that like in those phone number ads :P)**

**And here's a random thank you to all who have alerted, reviewed, or favorited this story so far; it means a lot to me! **

**-TheEvilPinkCupcake**


	9. The Eighth Question

**A/N**

**I'm back! And this one is better than the last one since it's all happy and cheerful again and there's no sadness or angst. :)**

**Not many people reviewed the last one, so I was sad :( Was it because I deleted the author's note so there was a chapter 8 repeat? Because somebody said that you can't review a chapter twice...Eh, if you review this one lots then it'll all be okay. :)**

**Add me on Pottermore: DawnMoon28538**

**I need more Pottermore friends! :)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Read on!**

* * *

Lily wasn't talking to James. She said it was because the last question was absolutely horrible and she didn't want something similar or something even worse to happen, and she wanted to cut off all contact with the Marauders. Alice, Marlene, and Mary all doubted she could do it, because her curiosity would once again get the better of her. Also, Potter kept trying to talk to her, but each time, Lily had managed to slip away. Avoiding Potter really was difficult and it was even harder if you were Lily Evans.

Secretly, Lily now had a valid reason to avoid James, and she was glad.

And on a gloomy, stormy, and gray day, Lily was in the library, with a mood that matched the weather exactly.

"Lily."

Silence.

"Liiillly."

Nothing.

"Lily. Lily. Lily."

No response.

"LILY!"

"What?! What's happening?!" The redhead jumped and looked around wildly. She gave a relieved sigh when she saw that it was only Alice.

"I've been calling your name for five minutes Lily!" She exclaimed.

"Oh-er, sorry, I was thinking."

"About You-know-who?" Alice asked cautiously.

Lily had given Marlene, Alice, and Mary strict _orders_ to call Potter you-know-who, and she insisted, despite their sighs and agitated looks and the confusion it caused.

* * *

For example…

"You-know-who's coming!"

"VOLDEMORT'S COMING TO HOGWARTS?!"

"No, not that You-know-who, the other one!"

"The other one? What other one? What-ohhh."

"Yeah, that one! Honestly, stop thinking Voldemort's going to attack us any minute!"

And other similar situations.

* * *

Back in the library, the scene at Lily's table was the same as any other day. Lily had been focused on the book and paper in front of her and her quill was moving across the page quickly as she wrote, until she drifted off. Alice had put her book, quill, and parchment away, and she was playfully poking and calling Lily's name. Mary was _trying _to pay attention. (Keyword: Trying.) Marlene had completely given up and was now gently snoring with her head on the table.

"What were you saying, Alice?"

"I was saying," Alice said, "that I was just daydreaming-ahem, I mean writing, when Black and Lupin rushed by and gave me this thing." She waved a piece of purple paper in the air, accidentally whacking Marlene in the process, who gave a loud snort and jumped up immediately, looking embarrassed.

"Whazzat?" She sleepily slurred.

Alice cleared her throat and read aloud. "Go go go! The eighth Marauder question is up now!"

Below it was a large '8' and a yellow smile face, which kept blowing raspberries and winking.

"Huh." Mary said, raising her eyebrows. "Since when did they start handing out flyers?"

"…I don't think they _did _start handing our flyers! I mean, if they had, they would've had a bunch of them to start giving to people, wouldn't they? But they were only holding one, and right after they gave it to us, they left." Alice looked at all the other people in the library; they were all flyer-less. She shrunk a bit when she caught the eyes of some blond barbie girls, who were glaring and looking at the purple paper enviously.

"Why do you think she only gave it to us?" Mary asked, even though she already knew the answer: Lily. Lily was the only known student in Hogwarts history who actually needed motivation, reminders, and some pushing to get her to do something the Marauders had asked.

"Whatever," Marlene chirped, smoothing down her hair. "You don't have to tell me twice! I'm going now!"

Alice and Mary both got up to follow, but Lily stayed firmly planted in her chair.

"You coming, Lily?" Alice questioned.

"_Of course not!_" Lily answered sniffily, "I told you guys already; I've had enough of Potter and Black's games and I'm never going again-and I actually mean it this time!"

Mary sighed resignedly at her forceful tone but Marlene seemed amused. "Whatever you say, Lils."

They then left, looking positively delighted to be able to ditch homework. All of a sudden, Lily felt a combination of many different emotions.

1. Anger. Well she wasn't flat-out furious, but she _was _a bit upset that _all_ of her friends would ditch her to go see some stupid Marauder notice.

2. Loneliness. She felt a bit alone no that everyone else was gone and nobody had stayed with her.

3. The-'out-of-the-loop'-feeling. She was sure that when her friends returned and they would be talking about the post. And because Lily didn't go see it, she would have no idea what they would be talking about.

4. Annoyance. Which was directed at Potter, of course. This. was. all. his. fault.

Lily was snapped out of her daydream when some Ravenclaw seventh years giggled madly at a nearby desk. Madam Pince shushed them crossly.

Lily looked back down to continue her homework, but instead her eyes caught the purple flyer Alice had left behind. She quickly averted her glance and looked back at her half-finished essay.

But she couldn't concentrate. The flyer was sitting nor far from her, and Lily, for some weird reason, didn't dare reach out to touch it, much less grab it and throw it away.

Though the flyer wasn't alive and hadn't been enchanted to be, it seemed to lay there, silently taunting her.

Lily glared at the flyer.

The face on the advertisement was still winking and sticking our its tongue periodically. All of a sudden, it grinned widely and let out a cackle of laughter.

Lily jumped back, scared out of her wits. She breathed a sigh of relief when she was it was just the flyer, though she was still a little creeped out by the sudden sound.

Another loud yell made her jump again.

"This is a library!" the voice screeched. Three guesses who _that_ was. Madam Pince stomped over, looking furious. "Miss Evans! I cannot believe-oh is _that_ where that _awful_ noise cam from?" She changed paths as she caught sight of the funky parchment on the table. "Was that where the awful noise came from? It's got the Marauders' names written _all_ over it!" She continued sniffily. "Give that to me, Miss Evans!"

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in Lily's head. Madam Pince could see the paper. That meant she could see what was _on _the paper. She already knew that it was the Marauders' doing. So if Lily showed the librarian, who would tell McGonagall, who could put a stop to all this…Everything could go back to normal! It was brilliant.

Excitedly, Lily grabbed the flyer and shoved it into Pince's hands. She looked at it for a long moment. All of a sudden, the face blew an extremely loud raspberry at her. Scowlling, she tapped the paper with her wand and said, "_Silencio._"

She handed the paper back to Lily who looked at her, confused.

Madam Pince did not notice Lily's befuddlement. "Giving a girl a paper with nothing but a face on it!"

Just a face.

_ Just a face._

_ Just. a. face._

_ "_Just a face?!"

"Why yes, Miss Evans. Just a face." She nodded and began walking away huffily. "The nerve of some people!"

Lily sat back down slowly, feeling oddly exhausted. So the Marauders _had_ thought of enchanting the flyer.

"We're baaack!" A voice sing-songed. "Did we miss anything?"

Lily, scowling, told them her story. She was surprised at their reactions. When she was finished, shock was written all over their faces.

"Blimey, Lily, I can't believe you actually told on them!"

"I meant it when I said I'd had enough of them! I'll do anything to get them to stop this nonsense!" she snapped.

"Anything?"

"Anything?"

"Anything!-except for murder and torture." she added quickly, scowling again.

"Well," Marlene muttered under her breath, "It seems like we're back to square one again with the Jily plan…"

"Nah," Alice replied, her lips twitching, "We still got Lily to admit she had some feelings for Potter. Let's say we're at square one and a half."

"Oh, honestly!" Lily interrupted. "We're obviously not going to get anything done, so let's just go back to the common room."

Eagerly, Alice, Mary, and Marlene crammed their parchments and books into their bags and jumped up. Lily nodded for them to leave without her and as they walked towards the exit, Lily carefully placed her book between her Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions ones. And, when she was sure no one was looking, she took the flyer, folded it, and cautiously slid it inside her pant's pocket.

* * *

It was killing her. Everywhere she went, she heard fellow students (especially girls) talk about the new question. It was all people talked about, yet the actual question was never mentioned, so Lily still did not know what it was. The curiosity was slowly breaking down the brick wall she had just rebuilt.

After one Transfiguration class, she had reached breaking point.

"Guys, tell me what the question was!"

They gaped and turned to Lily, eyes clearly filled with confusion.

"I'm just curious! And everyone's talking about it, I feel so out of the loop."

"…I don't think we should tell you…"

"What, why? It's not like there's a rule for that our anything…"

Alice grinned sheepishly. "Well-no, but they said that if we told someone who hadn't checked yet they'd find out and prank us of it."

"We've seen the revenge pranks they pulled and I don'y want to be on the receiving end of one of those."

"Just for telling?"

"Mhmm…" Marlene said.

Lily, grumbling, gave up. But she grew considerably crabbier as they entered the Great Hall and more chatters about the question were heard.

After dinner, when the common room was almost empty except for the four girls and some first first years who were about to go to bed, Lily suddenly called out to an especially frightened-looking firstie.

"Oi! What's your name?"

"M-Max E-E-Elmwood." He stuttered.

"Well, Max, I am Head Girl and I _need _ you to tell me what the Marauder question was!" Near the end of her command, her voice rose until it was almost an awful, shrill, shriek.

"B-b-ut the post said-"

"_Now."_

"Itaskeduswhatourfavoritenumb erwas!" He squeaked, then scurried up the stairs, hoping to escape Lily's wrath.

"Lily, what in the name of Merlin was that all about?"

"Well, I had to find out _somehow_ to-err-make sure it wasn't something bad-I am Head Girl after all-and since you wouldn't tell me, I had to do scare that poor kid into spilling."

Marlene was smirking. "Isn't that abusing your power Lily? And if I remember correctly, on the train ride here, you yelled at Potter for telling a first year he _needed_ that Chocolate Frog because he was Head Boy! A bit hypocritical, don't 'cha think?"

"-what?-oh, please, these are two completely different things!"

"How?" Mary asked, and she was also grinning.

"Yeah, Lily." said Alice, "Do enlighten us."

"_You-Know-who_ made that little kid lose money or a frog, I didn't make that Max Elmswood lose anything!"

Marlene was snickering now. "Nah, I think you made him lose his pants because you scared the pants off him!"

All, except Lily, hooted with laughter.

"Oh haha," She said, rolling her eyes. "Very funny." But there was the shadow of a smile upon her face.

However, inside, instead of feeling elated at successfully finding a loophole, she felt horrible. Was it because finding a way around the question rules had taken out all the fun? Or was it a mere coincidence that right after getting someone to spill, she suddenly felt sick to her stomach?

_Of course_ it was just a coincidence! The former suggestion was so ridiculous Lily almost laughed out loud. Almost. Well, sort of almost. Okay fine, her lips didn't even twitch.

And Lily found that her eyebrows were suddenly fixed in a scowl. Roughly decrying that she was off to bed, Lily hurried up the staircase. She hurtled into her soft bed and immediately fell into a warm, blissful sleep. She hadn't realized how tired she was.

* * *

Her soft, paradisal sleep soon morphed into one of the craziest dreams she had ever had. She was in a white nightgown, walking in a beautiful garden. But as she kept walking, her surroundings began to disappear. It happened slowly: the color first faded until everything was pale and looked almost translucent. Lily felt like she was in an old newspaper. After that, one by one, everything began to vanish until she was completely surrounded by white. It was so white Lily was almost blinded. And suddenly a face appeared. One second it wasn't there and suddenly it popped out of nowhere. Lily nearly had a heart attack. It was Potter's face, and its appearance shocked Lily more than anything. The dream was turning into a nightmare. Then another Potter face came. And another. And another. Now there were more than thirty Potter heads bobbing around her. Their lips moved as though they were speaking, but no noise issued from their lips. The faces did not carry their trademark smile. Instead, they all looked dead and serious, and their wordless chanting only added to the eeriness.

One face was coming closer and closer to Lily's own, and she stepped back , hoping to increase the distance between them. But Lily clumsily tripped over her own two feet and she fell on her back. Hard. Sweat was pouring down her face. She sat up, but something wet and squishy plopped into her lap. A sponge.

And suddenly she was back in the Gryffindor girl's dormitory. There was a yellow sponge in her lap and Marlene, Mary, and Alice were crowded around her four-poster bed, looking nervous, anxious, worried, and relieved all at the same time. There was a long pause as they all stared at Lily who stared right back. Color was returning to their pale faces.

"What happened?" Lily croaked. Her voice sounded hoarse.

"You've been quite ill." Mary answered softly. "Nightmare?"

Lily nodded.

"It was scary," Alice said, looking shaken. "When we woke up you were sitting up in bed, b-but you were still…_asleep, _and your legs were…_twitching alternately…_like right, left, right, left, and after a while you finally stopped-"

"-but you began sweating." Marlene continued. "And then you fell back down in bed, and Mary went and got water and a sponge-"

"You were hyperventilating and you looked like you couldn't breathe-"

"-we tried to wake you but no matter how hoard we shook, you just wouldn't-or couldn't-wake."

"After a while you suddenly sat back up and then woke…" Alice trailed off.

Lily couldn't believe it. She was never much of a 'sleep-mover', and she was shocked a dream about Potter could make her act like this.

Alice and Mary and Marlene didn't ask what the nightmare was about-Lily supposed they assumed that it had something to do with Lord Voldemort, with the rising threat of war looming before them. She was glad they didn't ask. If they found out the nightmare was actually about a boy and not a murderer who was at large, they'd laugh themselves silly and Lily would never hear the end of it. She'd rather keep everyone else in the dark. She didn't like hiding this from her friends, but it had to be done…

The next night was a little better, but not by much. She didn't exactly have a nightmare, but Lily was haunted by flashes and visions of her previous dream. She was unable to fall asleep no matter how many sheep she counted. She was so desperate she even counted stags, monkeys, goats, otters, horses, donkeys, and bumblebees, but nothing worked.

In three nights, Lily had very visible, dark, purple bags under her eyes.

"Perhaps the reason you're having dreams is because you're too stressed. Try loosening up a little." Alice suggested after seeing Lily's face.

"…You're right." Lily lied smoothly.

"I am? I mean-yes! I am!" She seemed flustered.

"So what should I do?" Lily knew that Alice's advice would most likely be unhelpful since she thought her nightmares were about You-Know-Who (the real one). But Lily was willing to get advice from _anyone._

"How about answering the Marauder's poll?" she said. "It's fun and it'll take your mind off things!"

_Of course_. Lily thought sarcastically. Alice wanted to solve Lily's problem _with_ Lily's problem.

But Lily took her advice. Yeah-that's right-Lily went back and answered another one. (Even after promising herself she wouldn't-again.)

This time she wasn't surprised since she already knew what the question was.

_Nice to see you again. That's all we've got to say. Onwards!_

_ What is your favorite number between one and ten?_

Well, Max Elmswood had left out the 'between one and ten' part, but it didn't make much of a difference since her favorite number was ten anyways. Without further delay, she entered her answer and swiftly left the notice board.

That night, Lily had the best and soundest sleep she'd had in ages.

* * *

The result came exactly the next morning, surprising everyone. They were all used to long waits, so everyone had thought that they were safe for at least a week. How wrong they were.

That early day, Lily groggily awoke. She wished she could sleep in and make up for lost time, but there were classes to go to and unlike Marlene, she actually cared about being on time.

Lily glanced at her left and saw that Marlene was still asleep and snoring gently. Yawning, she climbed out of bed and trudged to the bathroom. Marlene was standing by the door, leaning against the wall.

"Morning." Lily greeted.

"G'Morning." Marlene answered back.

Lily sleepily walked inside. Marlene was washing her hands.

"Uh-" Lily began.

Marlene cut her off. "I'm all done now, Lily. Bathroom's all yours."

Lily thanked her as she walked out.

It finally hit Lily when she was washing her face.

_Marlene sleeping…Marlene standing…Marlene washing her hands…Hold on. How could Marlene have been in three places at the same time?_

Lily rushed outside and uttered a shriek. Lilys and Alices and Marys and Marlenes were lounging around the dorm.

"Keep it down, will ya?" A Marlene said.

But the sleeping girls had already woken up and they all wore identical looks of disbelief as they took in their surroundings.

"How-what-huh?" was the general reaction.

"Marauders." Mary said simply. That one word explained it all.

"But who's the real one?" Alice cried.

"I am!" Everybody answered.

_ That did not help at all,_ Lily thought.

"I'm guessing that the real ones are the ones still in bed-except for Lily. She's the one standing at the door of the bathroom with water all down her front." Mary supplied.

Lily looked down and sure enough, she was covered with water. Lily flushed but nodded.

"How are we going to tell each other apart?" Marlene moaned.

Lily suddenly had a spark of inspiration. She sped to her bedside table and got her wand. Then she separated some strands of her own hair and spoke a color changing spell. It turned from red to purple. Smiling triumphantly, she did the same to all the real people. Now all the real girls had a purple streak in their hair.

Lily finished admiring her handiwork and turned back to the fakes.

She gasped. All the clones also had a purple highlight in their hair and everyone looked identical again.

"Oh no!" Alice cried.

"Looks like what happens to us also happens to them…" Mary said slowly.

"Now what?" grumbled Marlene.

Everybody tried to think and another light bulb lit up in Lily's head.

"Food!" She blurted.

"…Lily, this isn't the time to stop for snacks!" Mary said, "I expected that from _Marlene,_ but-"

"Hey!"

Lily interrupted. "No! We have to mark ourselves with food! It's one of the exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, so if we use food, they can't copy us because they can't create food our of nothing!"

"That's brilliant, Lily!" Alice praised.

"I have no idea what she just said…" muttered Marlene.

"Anyone got any food?"

No answer.

"What about Mary's private chocolate stash?"

"My secret-what? No! Err-I mean, private stash? What private stash? Haven't got one! I can't believe-no, psh, what stash? Where'd you-hey!"

Lily had waved her wand and accioed a pile of chocolate right from underneath Mary's bed.

"Perfect!" She said happily.

"No-not perfect! Argh, a private stash is supposed to be that-private! Alice!"

Alice tried to look sheepish.

"_Liquesco._" Lily said. The chocolate melted into a puddle of fudge. Lily used her index finger and drew two horizontal lines across her cheeks, like a football player.

She did the same to Alice, Marlene, and Mary, who was still looking grouchy.

"All done! Just err-try to not eat it." Lily instructed, especially towards mary, who was already trying to lick her own cheek.

The chocolate-less clones followed them downstairs, and at the base of the staircase, they ran into the Marauders.

Lily immediately began attacking James with her fiercest glare, but the arrival of Professor McGonagall broke off their fight.

Her nostrils flared. "Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew-another two weeks detention for you. Also, classes have been cancelled because of this mess. Good day." She left without another word.

"Classes-cancelled-no!" Lily huffed. She pointed her finger at the spot between James' eyes. He was now cross-eyed. "This is all your fault!" She ran out the portrait hole, leaving everyone befuddled.

Sirius shrugged. "Ooooh, is that chocolate?" He pointed excitedly at Marlene's cheeks.

She nodded, blushing slightly. Before she could say anything else, he had scooped away one fudge line with his finger and ate it.

"Yummy." He said. They all trudged out the common room.

Marlene squealed. "Did you see that?"

Mary and Alice shared looks that said "Here we go again…" They followed the Marauders out the common room. Sadly, they had to listen to marlene's nonstop chattering for another hour.

It was very chaotic, especially for the teachers. They each had twenty clones, which make it extra confusing with all the extras, but it was also hilarious. Professor Castallanta seemed to have also tried dying some hair, but the spell had backfired somehow and all her skin was grass green, like the aliens Muggles imagined. Every time Lily saw one of the Castallanta's she would crack up. Once she began giggling, all the other clones would mimic her and then there would be a crowd of eleven laughing Lilys.

But other than all the chaos, nothing else that interesting happened, and Lily subconsciously decided that this question really wasn't that bad.

But that didn't mean she was forgiving Potter _that_ easily.

* * *

**A/N**

**I hope you liked it! I think this one's the longest one so far.**

**Thanks to awesomeness33 (AGAIN! LOVE YOU ;D) for this cloning and favorite number idea.**

**Any ideas on what Lily's favorite hat should be? Help me :) But a hint: The question is not 'What is your favorite hat?' It's something else! I just need the hat as an extra little thing. :P Well, I'm not sure the next one is even a question! But I'm saying too much. ;)**

**Finally, thanks and cookies to all the readers, followers, favoriters, and above all, REVIEWERS! Thanks for sticking with me throughout this story; your support means a lot to me!**

**Review, guys! 3**

**Until next time!**

**~TheEvilPinkCupcake**


	10. The Ninth Question

**A/N**

**This is really late...sorry...but I have my reasons.**

**My parents have decided to get a divorce so It's been quite rough :(**

**To top it off, one of my friends has been constantly ditching me for more popular people. :O**

**So this chapter is a bit shorter; I also lost inspiration for a while since high school freshman stuff and my mom kept saying how I need to start focusing on nonfiction and dropping all the 'Stupid Fiction stuff'. She said that Harry Potter is stupid and it won't help in life...I don't care though, I'm still gonna continue loving HP. (rebel ;P)**

**Disclaimer: You know the drill.**

* * *

Lily was in a rough predicament: whether or not to forgive James. Two hours ago she was leaning towards yes (Probably because she was secretly very glad to have seen him after a boring, Potter-less, Christmas vacation.) But now…

Of course if she was some other girl, she'd forgive him in an instant and maybe even ask for a thank you kiss. But another girl would never have gotten mad at Potter in the first place.

Lily was not just another girl, and this was precisely the reason why James had chosen to serenade to her at dinner and not to Meredith West or Trina Valentine or some other random girl.

He had sang it to Lily because Lily was Lily. But right now Lily didn't want to be Lily. She'd rather be some Muggle girl who had never heard of magic and never will. Then she could go to college, meet a cute guy, fall in love, and have two kids named Hailey and Harry, a boy and a girl.

But Lily _was_ Lily, which was why she was currently buried underneath her bed covers, hoping to escape the crowds of jealous girls who had never had a guy sing to them in front of everyone. _Lucky them,_ Lily thought.

Being Lily Evans had both positives and negatives. 5% of all negatives were caused by Voldemort and the rest (95%) were caused by one James Potter. (Okay, maybe she exaggerated a teensy bit.)

The 'Call Potter You-Know-Who' rule had been revoked. Everyone was grateful, even Lily. It decreased a lot of confusion.

Because nothing too bad had happened last time, so Lily was getting closer to thinking that maybe the game was simply that-a harmless, just-for-fun, game, and perhaps what had happened on Halloween really wasn't intentional and was Lily's own fault for picking something so magic especially when the question-givers had implied that she shouldn't choose something like that.

Now, Lily thought that everything was okay, and there was a brief moment where her heart was suddenly filled with compassion for him. And it scared her.

And, in that moment, without her conscious consent, Lily forgave James. Yep, just like that. (How un-Lily-like.) It was very very _very_ different from what she would've done years ago.

* * *

So, on this snowy, chilly day in January, Lily was in her four-poster bed, curtains drawn. She started as she heard somebody enter.

"Hello?" An unfamiliar, high-pitched voice asked.

_Oh no,_ Lily thought,_ it must be one of those boy-crazy girls!_

Her curtains shook and Lily dove back under the covers.

"Relax, Lily," said Alice's voice, "It's just us."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Lily opened her curtains and saw her friends' familiar faces.

"Sorry!" the high voice squeaked, and Lily was surprised to see that it was Mary who spoke.

"Blimey, Mary, what happened to your voice?" Lily yelped.

Because the girl seemed reluctant to speak, Marlene spoke for her. There was a touch of disgust in her voice. "That stupid thug, Crabbe. He fired a hex at her for no reason. I think he was trying to do something worse, but he's not very bright-good thing, too-and this happened."

"We haven't been able to change it back and we thought that maybe you could."

Mary was trying to look nonchalant, but Lily could see that she was afraid.

After a horrible incident two years ago including Mulciber and the Cruciatus Curse, Mary was been considerable more frightened of Slytherins.

"Oh, Lily said sadly, "Let me have a look…Well, _Finite Incantatem _should work, and if it doesn't, I suppose we'll have to take you to Madam Pomfrey."

It didn't work, so Lily , knowing that she had to avoid other girls, led her friends out the dorm and down the stairs. They went out the portrait hole and continued towards the hospital wing. Lily was surprised, but glad, that nobody had confronted her yet. Usually, after one of the most popular guys in school had publicly displayed affection towards her, Lily would be attacked by gaggles of giggly girls.

But just as they were about to enter the infirmary, Melanie Dainty decided to make an appearance. And yes, her real last name was 'Dainty'.

She didn't say anything, which was weird since she was the one who came up to Lily and blocked her way in the first place.

Lily narrowed her eyes in dislike. She never liked Melanie Dainty. She reminded her of those popular, slutty cheerleaders that often appeared in Muggle chick flicks.

"Can we help you with something?" Lily snapped rudely.

Melanie's response was to smile and evil yet sweet smile and say, "Yes. Yes you can."

"Well?" Lily shot back, becoming more and more irritated.

Finally, Miss Cheerleader spoke. "Tell me, Evans," she said Lily's last name with disgust that was evident in her tone. "How do you get a _gorgeous_ boy like Potter to like someone like _you_?"

Lily was clearly offended. "_Excuse me_?" she exclaimed angrily.

"You heard me." Melanie said smugly, still smiling innocently.

Scowling deeply, Lily said, "Get out of my way."

"Or what?" The smile had not left her face.

But Lily had pulled out her wand. "Or I'll make your ugly face even uglier." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Alice, Marlene, and Mary were all looking at her with shock.

Melanie gasped dramatically. "How dare you!" She shrieked, stamping her right foot. Clutching her face, she ran past Lily, still hyperventilating.

As they entered the hospital wing, Marlene looked at Lily with befuddlement and a slight bit of admiration. "What's gotten into you, Lily? You're usually so against dueling or fighting physically. I'm proud of you." Marlene said, as Madam Pomfrey handed Mary a potion after Alice explained what had happened.

Lily grunted. "I don't know…But I hate her, that stupid Melanie Dainty. And she insulted me-I really wanted to punch her in the gut right then and there!"

Marlene stared for a few moments. Then, she turned and tapped Madam Pomfrey on the shoulder. The woman turned.

"Yes, dear?"

Marlene seemed like she was holding back a grin. "Uh, Madam Pomfrey? Do you mind checking Lily too? I don't think she's feeling too well. That, or she hit her head on something hard."

Lily slapped her.

* * *

It was after curfew, and Lily was in the Gryffindor common room alone, deciding whether to answer the question or not.

One step forward-_yes._

One step backward-_no._

One step forward-_nothing's going to happen!_

One step backward-_Halloween, remember?_

One step forward-_that was your own fault!_

One step backward-_fine, but I promised myself I wouldn't answer anymore!_

One step forward-_You promised that like five times and you broke it every time…_

One step backward-_Those questions gave me nightmares!_

One step forward-_They also got rid of them. This argument is invalid._

With a jolt, Lily realized that she was standing directly in front of the answer parchment. Because her backward steps were considerably smaller than her forward ones, Lily had been slowly making her way towards the rainbow paper with each argument.

Without conscious thought, Lily's green eyes began reading the notice, and she felt her feet immediately freeze and glue itself to the ground.

Darn it.

Well, now she had no choice but to answer, so she began reading.

"_Hello everybody!_

_ Did you all have exchange long, tearful goodbye with your clones?"_

Here Lily snorted. The Marauders had given people no warning to when the clones would be disappearing, so how on earth would they supposed to know when to 'exchange long and tearful goodbyes'?

Lily had just been playing wizards' chess with a clone (They were great competition since their brain capacity and knowledge level was exactly the same as hers) when POP! They disappeared. And that was that.

But back to the question.

"_This question result will be a little different…_

_ We aren't going to tell you how._

_ But we are going to tell you why. IT's because Sirius got this brilliant idea (Shocking, right-__**Hey!**__) and he wouldn't stop bugging us until we agreed to use it. When that didn't work, he half blackmailed and half bribed us, which is why this one would be different._

_ Now that that's over, the question is…[insert drumroll here]_

_ What's your favorite hat?_

_ Yes, that's the first question._

_ Bye now."_

Hat? Favorite hat? Lily thought, was that the best they could come us with? And just now she was thinking that the question was probably something super special because of the different and 'brilliant' idea.

But back to the question: favorite hat…Aha! Lily remembered a cute little baseball cap that her dad bought her when she was about 7. It was pink-her favorite color at that time, and 'Daddy's Little Princess' was stitched on the front in silver thread. Lily loved it, and she had worn it everyday until she outgrew the little cap. However, she still had it in the back of her closet somewhere, along with some other childhood toys.

But suddenly Lily remembered that she couldn't possibly put that she remembered how embarrassing some previous question results had been and those were when she answered normally. Putting a childish answer would only cause more embarrassment.

Lily sighed and began thinking of another type of hat. The Marauders wouldn't know if she lied anyways. (Hopefully.) Finally, Lily decided on a beret. She had gotten one when she visited France two years ago and it was pretty cute too. (Though it was nothing compared to her princess cap.) And how could _**anyone**_ make a beret embarrassing?

Lily smiled, glad that she had found an answer.

Rise and shine, Lily thought to herself sleepily as sunlight streamed through the window.

Yawning, Lily slipped out of bed and entered the bathroom.

A light green beret was sitting on the marble counter. Green. Lily loved green. It was her second favorite color. Her first was hazel (for some reason) It was just such a lovely color.

Carefully, Lily wore the hat and looked in the mirror. Cute.

She stood there silently, waiting for something to happen. Nothing. Now she was confused. Wasn't there supposed to be at least some boom or something? She kept on standing there, but there were no sudden transformations or explosions.

Now utterly bamboozled, Lily took of the beret and stared at it. Still nothing.

With a nonchalant shrug, Lily washed her face, brushed her teeth and left the bathroom.

Lily was still slightly suspicious. Why had nothing happened? Perhaps that was just part of the question…

Breakfast was the usual. Everybody ate and chatted about random things; boys talked about quidditch and girls giggled about boys. Thoughts of the mysterious hat slipped from Lily's mind.

"Hey, Lily, was there a hat in the bathroom?"

Lily immediately knew they were talking about the Marauder's hat. She swallowed her food and nodded. "Yeah, it was a beret..."

Alice frowned thoughtfully. "Did it, you know, do anything weird or out of the ordinary?"

"Well, no. That's what I was thinking...I mean, you think the Marauders would be a bit more creative than just making a hat appear in the lavatory."

Marlene said, her mouth full of food,"I 'et ers 'or 'oo et!"

"...What?"

Marlene sighed, and swallowed. "I said, I bet there's more to it!-Honestly, you guys should learn how to understand me when I'm talking with my mouth full!"

BOOM! People screamed and jumped aside as a gigantic, glass cube appeared of out nowhere in a big cloud of smoke. Lily coughed and squinted to see through the fog.

"Well, here it is!" Marlene wheezed. "The other part of the Marauder's question that we were all waiting for!"

_I don't like this_, Lily thought, _I don't like this at all!_ Perhaps she should just escape while she had the chance. But her feet were rooted to the spot. Not because of a spell or because of super glue, but because she was so nervous her feet had frozen. Lily didn't know why she was suddenly so scared; there had been exciting question results before and Lily had never felt this way about any of them.

With a sinking feeling, Lily watched. A picture began to appear, like a memory in a Pensieve. And Marlene appeared.

The real Marlene gasped and narrowed her eyes at the three dimensional screen. Then Sirius Black swaggered in, but he was in black and white, while Marlene stayed in full color.

"T-this is MY d-dre-dream..." The real her stuttered. "I dreamed about this last night!"

She turned purple, green, red and white as the dream finished with the dream Marlene and dream Sirius in a very flirty banter.

Marlene's dream ended, and it faded into another dream with a random Ravenclaw as the main character.

While Marlene was busy hiding her face, other dreams played. Alice's was about Frank (obviously). Mary's was about er...popcorn, oddly enough, and finally, as the last one, there was Lily's.

In horror, Lily watched as she was surrounded by orbiting Potter heads. She couldn't take the laughter and the stares anymore, so with her face tomato red in embarrassment, the the redhead fled the Great Hall, with her friends close behind her, all eager to escape the crowd.

* * *

**A/N**

**Short ending, I know. More of it will be explained in the next chapter when I get more inspiration to write back. :/ I just wanted to get a chapter out ASAP since I made you all wait an extra TWO months and then some.**

**Thanks for understanding you guys, and please please review! It'll make me feel better :D**

**REVIEW!**

**And once again, sorry for the delay and PLEASE REVIEW :D**


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